


Reverse The Roles

by TheLostSilence



Category: Servamp (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anime/Manga Fusion, Different origin, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Fake Character Death, Family Secrets, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, Hide and Seek, Identity Reveal, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Past Character Death, Portals, Role Reversal, Secret Identity, Secrets, Temporary Character Death, World Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 20:23:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18836113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLostSilence/pseuds/TheLostSilence
Summary: Kuro Ash's curiosity got the better of him as he strutted towards creature that was currently shielding itself from the sun and he scoffed inwardly at that.When he couldn't get a closer look, he bent down a bit and scooped the creature into his arms, and the moment he took a good look at it, his eyes widened.It was a... brown lynx.~{&}~Or, a story on where the Servamps’ and the Eves’ roles in this world are reversed with my twist on it, and everybody keeps their secrets and dark pasts to themselves.Kuro Ash is just trying to restart his life and forget about everything else that has lead up to this and gives up on his 'objective' since he deems it impossible, albeit his siblings are all trying desperately and fruitlessly to find ‘them’, but a certain brown lynx that he picks up will change all of that.Is it a coincidence?Maybe, the possibilities are endless, just like the number of worlds and number of times the 'new Eves' will search for their fated partners who were torn away from their grasps in the past.They'll do anything to get them back again.





	1. Chapter 1

It was a bright, sunny day. Sunlight brightened up the whole city, regardless of the artificial light that most shopping malls and buildings have provided, and people filled the streets without a care in the world; some were running, some were talking to their friends and some were listening to music.

It was a normal day and everybody liked these types of days.

Kuro Ash however, would argue that these types of days were overrated and did not deserve to be well-liked by the whole community.

A 'normal and sunny' day was one of the types of days that he hated due to the hustling and bustling of the city, the way the sunlight shone on his pale skin (to which's sensation he felt uncomfortable in because it felt so weird), the increase in noise pollution and the people.

The types of days he preferred were those dark, rainy days that seemed to cast a shadow over the populace, the one where most people would be cursing the Gods for ruining their perfect day.

Call him emo or whatever, but he jested that by ruining their perfect days, it turned itself into one of his perfect days.

One man's trash is another man's treasure, they say.

He sighed as he ran a hand through his silky blue bangs and pushed them to the side, revealing crimson red orbs that contrasted his pale skin and his hair and continued walking to a destination that even he himself didn't know what was.

His blue coat's hood that had fur attached and shaped to resemble a cat's ears fell off his head, and he contemplated for awhile on whether he should pull it back up or not, before deciding that it would be too troublesome to do so and chose the latter.

It was a smart choice because in doing so, he could see things that were previously blocked due to his hood covering it.

And he noticed that in his reflection of a window screen of a store, his stature was super sloppy and he was slouching more than usual, possibly due to him trying to avoid the sunlight from hitting him because he wasn't used to it.

He was used to and preferred being in the dark instead of being in the sun, and it was kind of a new sensation to him regardless of how he's done this so many times.

'Maybe because it's a ‘different’ world... But don't all worlds' suns feel like this? I mean, it's the same as before, but... Well, you can't really blame me after being in the dark for so long... This is always gonna feel weird for me no matter how many times I've done this, huh?' He pondered.

Even though he was human, he would never get used to the feeling of sunlight on his human skin because it felt so strange to him.

He took a while to oversee himself in the reflection and he even took the effort to stand up straight and tall just to get accurate results.

He looked as tired as ever; regardless of his height his coat's ragged tails still touch the ground; he was slightly paler than the people walking behind him and oblivious of his presence, and that could make him stand out in the crowd.

'Will people think I'm sick if I look this pale? Back then, my skin has already been pale... But I'm a human and humans have skin that's more vibrant, in a way. I'll stand out, won't I? I should eat more from now on...' He noted in his mind.

He narrowed his eyes and the guy in the window screen did the same, and he inspected the crimson red eyes his reflection had.

Huh... even after all this time, after all this trouble, not once did his eye color even change at all, neither did his seven, or eight, if you count that maniacal guy to be blood-related to him, siblings' eye colors too.

Was that a trait that was special to them only, so special that it wouldn't go away or change one bit even after all this mess and time? 

He had expected it to turn blue at one point, because his hair color was blue too, but it remained red all the time and it really did stood out and attracted attention; would people point him out on his eyes too in this place?

He sighed as he mumbled 'attention's a pain' to himself and turned to leave, but before he could get a third step in, his sharp but saggy eyes caught themselves on something that was in an alleyway.

It was brownish and it was in between a makeshift shelter made out of cardboard boxes, most likely having been made by little kids who wanted to help... whatever it was.

'People who would help anybody in need, regardless of themselves, huh? There were still people like that? They're rare... And one of them was ‘him’...' He frowned when his thoughts led themselves to a dangerous place.

A place that he has tried to cover and chained up to the best of his abilities, a place that he swore he would never tread into for the rest of his life, and a place that all of his siblings had tried to console and make him open up on but to no avail.

What was once a happy place for himself to reside in and just cherish all of the moments with ‘him’, was now a deserted and abandoned space with shattered and broken memories that he has tried to hide and bottle up for a long, long time.

He didn't know how much longer he could latch onto the small ray of hope that he had made for himself at first, if he hasn't even fallen yet.

He craved for ‘his’ touch, he craved for ‘his’ voice, he craved for ‘his’ consolations, he wanted to walk and talk to ‘him’ like lovers do, and he just wanted to hear that knock that would knock on his locked door and tell him that they would knock on their future together.

Well, look at where that has brought him now.

He hissed at that offhand statement that he made before deciding that it was fruitless to try and argue with his conscience because it was all true.

His curiosity got the better of him as he strutted towards the brownish creature that was currently shielding itself from the sun and he scoffed inwardly at that; if only he could do the same, to hide somewhere without anybody finding him.

When he couldn't get a closer look, he bent down a bit and scooped the creature into his arms, and the moment he took a good look at it, his eyes widened.

It was a... brown lynx.

Huh... uh, okay, that was weird. Weren't they an exotic animal? Why the hell was one just right out in the open, in an alleyway and in a city that was nowhere near a forest too? Wouldn't poachers or people have already reported it?

He stared seriously at the brown lynx, calculating some type of formula in his head— no wait, that incorrect because the only thing that was running in his mind were questions, the most biggest and understandable one being 'WHY THE HELL IS THERE A FREAKING LYNX IN MY ARMS?!'.

Ah, typical Kuro.

However, the intense staring that would've bored holes into anyone else that were to pitifully come under it, plus the change of location, must've roused the creature from his slumber as he opened his eyes, revealing uncanny crimson red orbs that were very similar to his own.

What.

The.

Fuck.

The creature seemed to have widened his eyes and stilled, almost to the point where it was frozen just by the sight of him.

'Am I really that hideous for a freaking animal to freak out just by looking at my face?' Kuro made a self-deprecating joke at himself which flattened his self-confidence even more, and continued to stare at the frozen lynx.

He sighed as he grumbled something inaudible, and mumbled,"Now, what am I going to do with you... You haven't attacked me yet, which is surprising, so I don't think you're that wild and bad..."

However, he took a pause on his own words once he heard what he was trying to subconsciously and unknowingly suggest.

Was he actually going to try and keep the lynx? 

No way, that was impossible. It was illegal to do that and it could get you into deep trouble if people were to find out about it, and he didn't like attracting attention to himself. 

Moreover, if he can't even take care of himself then how was he going to take care of a freaking wild, threatened and exotic species?!

With his mind decided on a choice, he bent down again to settle the lynx back into his makeshift cardboard home, but stopped halfway as he thought his plan over and stared at the spot the lynx was resting before, and realised how pitiful it was.

There wasn't even cushioning for it to sleep on; it was just laying on the hot, rocky, damaged and dirty cement floor on it's belly and the cardboard was barely big enough to shelter it from anything while he had a comfortable apartment to go to.

His apartment was designed to fit one person but could easily fit two or even squeeze in a three, and his neighbors weren't that nosy because every one respected each other's privacy, so what could go wrong in taking it in?

However, a deeper part in him told him that the major reason he was actually going to consider taking the lynx in was because of ‘him’, and he remembered how ‘he’ did the same for him and turned his life upside down.

Shouldn't he do the same for this poor pitiful and frozen lynx that looked like as if it just saw it's predators, a hunter or a ghost?

Quickly changing his mind, he got back up straight on his two feet and held the lynx close to his chest as he whispered,"Please don't bite me. I'm just doing a reckless idea that will for sure get me in trouble but I'm just doing it anyway."

He swore he felt the lynx nuzzle it's head into his clothed chest even more, smelling him and moved to perch it's head on his neck where it could feel a breathing human's pulse, beating normally like how a human's heartbeat should.

And just like that, it froze again.

Kuro wondered about the animal's strange behavior before shrugging it off; it probably was something that lynxes did (it wasn't, but of course, no one was here to tell him that).

He pulled his slender, long and pale fingers through it's fur, and whispered,"Don't worry, I know how it feels like to be alone and abandoned, and it's a troublesome feeling to say the least. I'm not going to let you feel that any longer. I'll take you in."

"And moreover," He wore a frown as he whispered into it's sensitive ears,"I feel like by doing this, I can at least repay ‘him’ a little. I want to try and be the one who steps in to help for once."

"I know it's not gonna make my life any simpler, but at least I'm doing something," He ended, finally getting rid of that feeling in his chest.

The lynx jumped slightly but not until it was out of his grasp, and whether it was his imagination or not, he swore it had eased itself at his words.

He smiled slightly as he was not someone known for being emotional or that outgoing, but he was still a bit relieved that it was okay with being with him and not attacking him at this instance; he was a human and humans didn't heal very quickly.

"Oh yeah," He commented as he glanced at his watch that he was wearing, and remembered where he was going to in the first place; the dreaded school.

Yup, no matter how much he had protested against it, claiming it to be a bother and something troublesome to deal with, his siblings had persisted him to continue going to school so that he wouldn't appear suspicious.

He grumbled,"School is such a pain. How do humans even deal with it? And you have to wake up so early too..."

He felt the lynx's chest move a little, as if replicating a human's body when laughing (which shouldn't have been possible since it was a freaking lynx), and he clicked his tongue,"Hey, don't start laughing at me. School sucks, okay?"

The lynx's chest movements came to a stop and it was now only breathing and doing nothing else, and Kuro sighed,"Well, I've gotta bring you home first before going there. Please don't complain if you feel uncomfortable in my shaking grasp while I run."

He could almost imagine the lynx nodding its head at him, and he smiled slightly as he took off, wanting to get back to his apartment as quick as possible and not being late to school.

Being late to school sucked and he didn't want to relive that memory when he came to school super late because the alarm didn't wake him up, and he was forced to stand outside the classroom.

Now he understood why ‘he’ was always such in a rush to get to school.

He smiled a little but that smile was short lived as it fell back into a straight line, and he put more speed and power to his legs and willed them to run even faster.

Maybe he could start to repay ‘him’ back now, even if that were to be a fleeting dream that seemed so far out of his reach.

But surely, one step at a time would bring him to his destination so as long he was not roped into anything dangerous and troublesome, like being put in a war against an enemy who was out for blood.

...Right?


	2. Chapter 2

"And here we are. Welcome to my humble home. Please don't make it much more of a mess than it already is because I don't have the energy or will to clean it up," He monotonously announced as he nudged the door open with his shoulder while holding the lynx in his arms.

He treaded into his domain that was littered and full of ramen cups and potato chip bags scattered about, and he scrunched his face when he unknowingly stepped onto one and it made a crunching noise that sent tingles up his spine.

"I should really clean this place soon... it looks like a garbage dump," He grumbled as he picked up the nearest potato chip bags and ramen cups, cleaning the floor that was previously buried underneath it a little bit, and he tossed them away in a bin.

Well, his apartment was messy, but it wasn't that messy that it looked unlivable to be in.

...Scratch that, he couldn't even fathom anyone else who wasn't him to be able to live in this dump, and if his siblings came over, he'd get ear-rape and a helluva of complaints.

He sighed as he picked up more bags and boxes before tossing them away, and his place looked at least 50% more livable to be in, even if he did the bare minimum.

He then spotted a small table that he could settle the lynx on as he placed it there, and he made a 'stop' motion with his hand, hoping to get his message across,"Don't move. Just wait."

The lynx stared back at him with it's red orbs that glistened in the light, and Kuro took the silence as an 'okay' as he got up and went to his room.

He went to his drawer and fished out a small box that contained the item that he was looking for, and he pulled it out and opened it to see what treasures laid inside.

There were two yellow bells; one looked new and one was very, very rusty, and they were both stationed in place by cushioning that was often used to hold rings in place.

He eyed the rusty bell with longing and sadness in his eyes and even felt some wetness to it, but he wiped them off,"C'mon, it's not time to be emo. I have a freaking lynx waiting for me."

He grabbed the new round yellow bell that had a collar attached to it from the box, sparing one last glance to the rusty one before shutting the box tight and placing it back into the drawer.

He trudged out of the room and spotted the lynx still on the table that he settled him on, relieved that it got his message of 'don't move', and headed straight for it.

He stared at the lynx for three seconds when he was standing in front of it, contemplating whether he should really do this; keeping it and even giving it a name, because once he does that then he'll become attached to it.

He sighed before remembering his sole reason for doing this kind act:

It was to repay ‘him’.

His lips quirked up in a small smile, his will and mind finally deciding on the choice that best suited his reason, and he carefully placed the collar that had a bell attached to it around the lynx's neck; he made sure that it wasn't too tight for it so that it could at least breathe.

( A formidable bright brown light that resembled a collar formed, it's base taking shape as the contract was set in motion for the first time in centuries for ‘him’.

'One down, two to go,' ‘his’ mind helpfully reminded ‘him’ of the requirements, and ‘he’ clicked his tongue in annoyance at that; ‘he’ didn't want an Eve for god's sake. )

Kuro stared at the lynx and it stared back at him, red eyes clashing against each other mystically.

He wondered on what to do now because he felt like something was missing as he dangled with the bell, earning a chime from it.

It seemed as if the bell's chime had him have an 'Eureka!' episode because his eyes lit up with determination, an expression that would obviously look odd for a NEET like him.

He ran a hand through the lynx's fur softly, and he whispered,"I'll name you Mahiru. If you wanna live in my house, you've gotta have a name I can call you by, right?"

( ‘He’ could almost hear the clogs in the damn contract make haste to work things out, an audible 'click' resounding itself in the void, and before ‘he’ knew it, ‘he’ felt something long and bright attach itself to the collar around his neck.

'Two down, one to go. It's only a formidable and hazy light for now because it's incomplete, but once he finishes all of the three requirements, it'll be a true contract and you'll be bound to him forever,' The demon in ‘his’ mind supplied information to ‘his’ brain, and ‘he’ hissed at it.

'I don't want an Eve. I've never ever wanted an Eve before and I don't want one now. They'll blame me for everything that goes wrong. I've tried to avoid them for so long and just because this guy looks like... ‘him’, I let my guard down. I don't want an Eve,' ‘He’ grumbled.

The demon merely smirks evilly, as if taunting ‘him’.

'You don't and never will have a choice in this, Despair.')

Kuro held the lynx, whom was renamed as 'Mahiru' now, in the air as he eyed it,"Your name shall be Mahiru, and that is it. For as long as I live, your name will not change until I say so."

'Why am I saying this as if I'm reciting a spell or something?' He scoffed to himself as he continued to stare at Mahiru, but unbeknownst to him, if he had taken the chance to look at the shadow on the wall, he would have not seen a shadow of a lynx.

In fact, he would have seen him holding up a grown person that had a coat similar to his, and the shadow was static, buzzing around instead of staying still and it had a brown light highlighting it's form.

Kuro finally placed Mahiru down on the table again and glanced at the clock, eyes widening a bit at the time; it was seven o'clock and school started at seven-fifteen.

"Shit. I'm gonna be late to school. I've gotta go. Don't trash the house and make it even more like a hellhole than it already is, okay?" He requested as he went to grab his bag that he had subconsciously thrown on the floor when entering the house.

When he received no answer from the lynx, he sighed,'Why do I even expect to get a verbal answer from a freaking lynx? I'm dumb as hell.'

He tossed his light blue coat over the hanger, remembering the time when the teacher had berated him in front of the whole class for wearing such a thing that could make people trip and fall because of the ragged tails it had and he shivered at it.

He checked himself, reassuring himself that he was indeed wearing the school uniform and not his casual wear because sometimes, he didn't even notice and only did when he was half-way to school, and he had freaked out then.

He really wasn't used to this.

He spared one last glance at Mahiru, quirking his lips up slightly, before truly heading to his school that he was enrolled into by his troublesome siblings (minus one, the maniacal and most troublesome one) who had cashed in just for this.

"They're truly troublesome. They know I hate going to school yet they still force me into it nonetheless," He hissed at the thought as he picked up his pace, hoping to not be late.

~{&}~

( Behind the closed door, the lynx that was stationed on the table hopped off, but before it's feet could even kiss the floor, a puff of smoke appeared and shrouded it's form and what remained of a lynx was no more.

Amidst the smoke, a shadow of a person who could not be older than sixteen or so appeared, and a slight noise of boots hitting the floor could be heard too as the smoke dissipated away.

When the smoke cleared, a teenage brunette could be seen stretching his limbs as he moaned from the relief that it brought on him.

He opened his eyes, revealing crimson red ones that seemed to be uncannily similar to Kuro Ash's, then yawned, revealing sharp canine teeth that looked far too sharp to be a normal human's, and he finally ran a hand through his unruly and messy auburn hair.

His red-coat's hood that had fur attached to it, resembling a cat's ears, fell off his head and he didn't even bother pulling it back up as he glanced down to his feet.

His pale hand that looked too pale to be a human's found themselves grabbing one of the ragged tails that were attached to his coat, and he eyed the colour of it.

Even though his coat was red, it eventually turns dark from his waist down but he didn't mind the contrast of colours at all; it would be too complicated for him if he tried to dye it red.

From the corner of his eyes and through the crack of the door, he noticed that in the boy's room, there was a long mirror so he decided to check himself out in it and walked over to it.

In some sense, he felt like he was trespassing but it would only be a matter of time before he would enter it because he would vacuum the place later; the place was a mess and he was nit-picky so how could he not?

What he saw in the mirror was a teenage boy looking sickly pale, wearing long white pants and a plain black shirt inside his red-coat, his hair being an unruly mess like it always has been, and he noticed that he was still wearing his boots.

He sighed, remembering that he was in Japan and in an asian household, so he had to take off his shoes no matter what, unless he was in a rush.

He strutted out, cringing when he almost tripped over a ramen cup and pledged to himself that he would clean this mess before that asshole arrived, and he swiftly kicked his shoes off when he was near the doorframe.

He eyed the mess before him when he turned back and grumbled at it, and he glanced over the place before noticing a vacuum at the corner.

'If he has one, why doesn't he use it? Is he that lazy? That jerk,' He cursed the boy, slightly disappointed that the boy was human so he couldn't strangle him.

Had the boy been a vampire then he'd gladly strangle him without any hesitation to death.

He grabbed the vacuum and turned it on, feeling a sense of triumph and victory wash over him when it started with a whirl, meaning that it was operational.

He turned his sights towards the hellhole of an apartment, and a determined glint shone in his crimson red orbs.

Time to transform this place. )

~{&}~

Kuro had managed to get through the gates and reach his class one minute before the bell even rang, which meant that he wasn't officially late, even if it was only by one minute.

He could count himself lucky for that one.

"Lucky for you, huh, Ash? I was about to count you as either late or absent," The teacher snarked as he ticked off the 'present' box on his list, and Kuro rolled his eyes at that as he approached his table.

Just as he was reaching his table though, he locked eyes with a raven-haired male and sighed, trying to ignore him to the best of his abilities because he wasn't exactly comfortable with him.

The raven merely grinned and once he sat down on the table, the former started talking,"Good for you, huh, Kuro? I really thought you weren't coming today! Of course, that would make things less interesting for me."

"Shut up, Tsubaki... And since when was I ever interesting? All I do is just watch the teacher teach and do my business," He groaned as he glared at 'Tsubaki', who merely grinned again.

Kuro narrowed his eyes at him as his mind kept playing on like a mantra,'It's not him. He's different. He's not him. He's not the Tsubaki that you know. Here, this guy is just any ordinary human-classmate. Don't mix them up.'

"Shut up. Don't you think I know that? What a pain... This is so troublesome that I could just die," He grumbled, causing Tsubaki to quirk an eyebrow.

"Are you talking to yourself? Kuro, have you truly gone crazy?" Tsubaki eyed him with disbelief etched onto his face as he examined him, which earned an irk-mark at his temple.

"You hypocrite. The one who's crazy here is you," He snarked back at him, earning a dramatic gasp from the raven because he was a dramatic bitch who loved to overreact.

"How DARE you?! I am NOT crazy! You are the one who's—"

"Gentlemen, if you would PLEASE quiet down and let me start the class!" The teacher yelled, quietening the whole class in an instant as both males stopped talking and nodded.

The teacher huffed and opened his textbook, instructing the class to do the same and turn to a certain page, which both males did too but the raven decided to be talkative for the day.

He nudged Kuro on the shoulder, and Kuro groaned quietly at it, wondering why he just had to be in the same class as this creep and even sit beside him at that point,"What?"

Tsubaki's head hung low, and he asked,"Hey... I saw you pick up a brown lynx this morning. Are you gonna keep it?"

Kuro's eyes snapped open as he whipped his head around so fast that it was surprising that he didn't get whiplash,"What? How do you know that? Are you spying on me?"

"No, no, no! I mean, maybe, but that's not the point! You just happened to be there, that's all..." Tsubaki glanced to the side for a split second before turning back,"No but seriously... are you gonna keep it?"

"What are you gonna do if you know?"

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope."

"I shouldn't have asked. Now who are you really, to snark at me back like this?"

"I am Tsubaki, son of... God damn it, I am running out of things to say. Now, answer my question and stop avoiding it. Although it's making an amusing conversation, I think that your answer will be much more interesting."

Kuro stared at him for awhile before glaring at him,"Don't meddle into my business. I do what I want. If I want to keep it, then I'll keep it. If I don't want to, then I won't. It's as simple as that. Don't poke your nose into my stuff."

Tsubaki frowned at his cold reply and kept his head down as he went to study by himself, not paying any attention to the teacher because he deemed his teachings to be boring.

Kuro huffed as he turned away and looked towards the window, and whistled to himself softly as he waited for time to waste away, waiting impatiently for school to end.

~{&}~

Kuro was about to doze off and sleep through his last class even though lunch was maybe one hour ago, but his sleepiness was cut short when the bell rung, signalling the end of school.

He yawned, stretching his limbs, relishing when he heard his joints pop as he eyed the rest of his classmates grin to each other and talk about the things they'll do after they get out of here.

Tsubaki grinned and tapped him on the shoulder as he waved him off,"Bye, Kuro! See ya tomorrow! Hope you make tomorrow interesting as well!"

"Now just what makes me so interesting to you, huh?" Kuro glared at him, which made the latter laugh maniacally but kept it to a bare minimum so as to not attract to much attention from others.

Tsubaki hummed as he eyed the bluenette before strutting towards him and bending over, and he whispered softly in his ear,"I don't know much, but I do know that you're hiding a huge secret. I can feel it. What is it, I wonder? That's what makes you much more interesting than the rest."

Kuro's eyes widened as he flinched away from Tsubaki, and the latter all but smirked as he slowly walked off, leaving the bluenette to daze by himself.

What did he mean by that? How did he come to that conclusion? And much more importantly:

How did he even know?

He sighed as he burrowed his face into his hands, rethinking all of his life choices up until now, and he laughed silently to himself when he remembered that most of his life choices weren't exactly the best, and that decreased his ego even more.

'Ah, my life is a mess... What can I do? I'm practically alone on this one. I'm lazy and I live in an apartment with a freaking lynx... Wait,' He realised stupidly.

The weight of the realisation hit him hard and he was suffocating beneath it.

He had a freaking lynx waiting at home for him and it probably trashed his house even more by now and here he was, rethinking his life choices after hearing a lunatic spout out nonsense!

He grabbed his bag and dashed out of the classroom, eager to go home and make sure that he didn't need to get one of his richer siblings to pay for renovations and question him on what he was thinking when deciding to keep a lynx.

~{&}~

Kuro ran from the elevator and straight to his doorstep, sighing in relief as he rushed to grab his key out and unlock it,"Ah, finally made it... I hope Mahiru hasn't wrecked the whole house—"

His actions were stopped to a halt when he heard noise coming from the inside, and while preparing himself for the worst, he placed his ear to the door, trying to distinguish what the noise was.

It was the noise of... a vacuum?

What the hell? 

Did he leave the vacuum on? No, that can't be possible since he hasn't even used it in over one or two months because it was too noisy for him. So how could it be on—

The realisation hit him like a shit ton of bricks as his palms suddenly got really sweaty, and his chest was currently palpitating.

Someone was in the house and it wasn't him, and that 'somebody' also wasn't invited since he lived alone.

His breathing faltered as he gulped and carefully, quietly, put the key in and turned the doorknob around, opening the door soundlessly and slowly, his nerves jumping at the slightest bit of sound.

Adrenaline was rushing through his veins as he grabbed the nearest thing, which coincidentally was a broom, and he gripped it hard and raised it in the air with every intention of hitting the burglar or somebody that broke into his house. 

He turned a corner and did not even take a glance to the person whom was in front of him, and swung the broom, hard, and shut his eyes tight as he braced himself for the scream or the impact that was going to come.

However, he didn't hear any bone breaking or a scream; instead, the vacuuming noise continued, as if the person didn't mind or seem concerned with what was happening at all.

He peaked his eye open and his eyes widened at what he saw.

The intruder wasn't looking back at him and he even caught the broom with one hand as if the blow didn't hurt or injure him at all, which it should've because he exerted most of his strength on it, and he continued to vacuum without flinching.

After two seconds, he heard the intruder sigh out loud as he turned the vacuum off and slowly turned around, making Kuro gasp in shock as he took in who was standing before him.

It was someone who looked exactly like 'him'.

Slowly, the man (or doppelgänger of ‘him’) opened his mouth, revealing sharp canine fangs, and he finally spoke with a voice Kuro had longed to hear for so long.

Unfortunately, the words that came out weren't the most polite and characteristic of the person that he had imagined of:

"You have the shittiest and dirtiest apartment that I have ever seen before, you know that?"


	3. Chapter 3

"You have the shittiest and dirtiest apartment that I have ever seen before, you know that?" Despair sighed as he turned his body to face the male before him.

The blue-haired male that looked so much like a certain person that Despair had treasured in his past was still gawking at him, standing still like a statue as if he was paralyzed at the sight of him, and it unnerved him to no ends. 

Despair tilted his head at the strange behavior; this person wasn't reacting like how he would have expected a normal and simple human to.

Wouldn't he have had said something by now? Like, asked him questions on why the hell was he in his apartment, why he was vacuuming around, whether he was a burglar and such?

Instead, Kuro continued to stare at him with conflicting emotions in his eyes, as if trying to see whether he was an illusion or not, whether he was real, whether he was actually standing before him at the moment.

The situation was getting too awkward for Despair's liking so he decided to break the ice because thinking simply, it was the simplest thing to do,"Um, are you just gonna stand there or what? I was expecting you to freak out or something. No wait, you did freak out in the beginning by hitting me with a broom but that doesn't count does it—"

He was cut off when Kuro clasped a hand over his arm, squeezing it a little and feeling it but doing it gently as if he was a porcelain doll that was not to be damaged at all.

Despair wasn't one for physical contact; hasn't been since centuries ago, when the only people that he could rely on after ‘that’ had abandoned him.

‘They’ had left him by himself after he did what that damn organization had told him to do because he was just following a script that he had known for a long time, and he had justified that it would have happened anyways because that event had already happened to 'them', and they were just following 'their' script.

Of course, ‘they’ also had justified that they should differ from 'them' and set ‘their’ own script for themselves, but he deemed that complicated and went by himself to make sure that everything abides by the script.

It was too complicated to try and make a new script and a new future for yourself when you're essentially in somebody else's character that had everything already written out for them.

And he wasn't risking ‘them’ to get hurt just because he wanted to take a leap of faith and do something different that would change his future forever; he tried so hard not to hurt anyone. In the end, he didn't realise that he was hurting himself inside. 

But he jested that even if he did know that he was doing it, he wouldn't care because he deserved it.

Of course, some of ‘them’ had chosen his side and agreed to do what the organisation had ordered and were kind of still on a friendly-level with him, but he hasn't seen any of them for centuries.

Kind of a bad move when considering ‘they’ had also went through the same thing that he did back then, when their future was torn away from their grasps, as well as ‘their partners’ and they were the only one who he could rely on.

But the past can't be changed and he dug his own grave when he didn't bother to search for them anymore, so he always shrugged it off. If he ever woke up from this nightmarish dream, he'd search for them again, and he wondered on where he would head to and end up at.

It's been so long since he had any kind of physical touch ever since ‘they’ left him (or he left ‘them’), and feeling uncomfortable, he tried to brush the hand off,"Hey, what do you think you're doing—"

He let out a surprised yelp when he was pulled into Kuro's warm chest and the grip that pulled him in tightened, and he could feel the taller male's breaths he buried his face into his hair and took in his scent deeply.

What the hell was this guy doing to him?!

Kuro ran one hand through Despair's auburn hair, treading his fingers through it gently as if his hair was of the finest silks in the world and if Despair hadn't just met the guy that morning and had the time to bond with him, he would've actually considered the treatment he was getting to be pleasant, as pleasant as a nice massage.

Unfortunately though, he didn't and this guy was like a 'stranger' to him, and having a stranger brush through your hair was creepy. Unless you were in a salon but he wasn't at the moment (but he'd still get kind of freaked out).

"Y-You have no idea..." Kuro choked out and it almost sounded like he was crying, and it almost broke Despair's heart,"You have no idea how long I've searched for you. You have no idea how much I've ached for your touch and voice..."

Despair froze.

What the hell was this guy even talking about?

He couldn't have had known him from before because this guy was... human and he was an immortal vampire that has been alive for who knows how long because he's given up on counting at this point, and...

...What did he even mean by 'I've searched for you' and 'I've ached for your touch and voice'...?

Despair shoved Kuro off him roughly, shocking the latter by the treatment as he rushed to envelop him in a hug again but Despair made a stop sign by his hand, halting him in his advances. “Okay, first off," Despair took a breather as he looked at him in the eye, stare as still and hard as stone,"Let's take a step back from everything for now, shall we? And don't touch me. I don't like physical contact." 

Before Kuro could butt in he continued,"I have no idea who you are. We just met each other in person just now. I don't know on what you mean by 'I've searched for you' because I know that you definitely don't know me, except if you're a C3 member but I doubt it, seeing as you're a teenager."

Once he finished and Kuro registered what he said in, his whole world shattered into pieces as he stared at him with soulless eyes as his words pierced through his ears like ice and rung in his head.

'I have no idea who you are.'

( "K-Kuro! Please, he-help me! I don't know w-what's going on! I'm scared! What even is this thing?! I-It's pulling me in! I'm stuck! I can't m-move! Where is it dragging me?! Kuro, p-please help me!" 'His' helpless cries were filled with such fear, an emotion 'he' rarely showed. )

Kuro gritted his teeth at that cursed memory as he bit his lip and shook his head vigorously, trying to get the painful and dreaded image out of his head as he dug his fingernails in his scalp.

'Not now. Not now. Stop. Stop replaying this scene. Please, stop. No more. Stop. It hurts. It hurts so much. Stop showing 'him' like this. Stop making me remember 'him',' Kuro cried out in his mind as he dug his teeth into his lip deeper, almost drawing out blood.

Despair apparently noticed his distress as his sharp crimson red eyes softened and he reached out a hand to him,"Hey, are you alright?"

Kuro widened his eyes at the kind gesture, his breath halting midway as he stared at him again, and before he knew it, his hands were flying up to clasp around the latter's arms, transiently confining him.

"Oi, what the hell are you doing? I just told you to not touch me—"

"Mahiru! Do you seriously not remember who I am?!" Kuro frustratingly yelled out loud, not realising his mistake of calling Despair by the name he gave this morning.

Despair widened his eyes at the name he was called by,"D-Did you just call me Mahi—"

Before both parties had any time to respond and before Despair could even finish his sentence, a bright brown light that blinded them for a few seconds formed around his neck, connected to another zagged line that ended wrapping around Kuro's wrist, and a gust of wind formed.

Both of them stilled for a few more seconds as they eyed the diminishing light, eyes wide and mouth agape, but the realisation soon hit them both.

Kuro was about to say something but 'Mahiru' beat him to it as anger and irritation returned and blossomed in his chest and he grabbed the collar of Kuro's uniform,"Why the hell did you do that?! Why did you say that name?!"

"Now I have to stay with you for twenty four hours!" Mahiru bellowed with fury in his eyes, but Kuro could only gape his mouth as a response to the whole shenanigan.

Seeing that he wouldn't get a proper response from the other male, Mahiru released his grip he had on Kuro's collar as he stormed off to get some distance between them and with his back faced against the other, he cried out,"Agh! And here I was, thinking that I could leave soon! I should've just left when I had the chance to!"

While he was still rambling, Kuro's face fell as he processed everything in.

A Servamp. 

'He' was a Servamp in this world and he accidentally made a temporary contract with him without realizing it. That meant that he'd have to stay with him for twenty four hours.

God damn it, this is such a pain.

"You're... a Servamp?"

Kuro's voice betrayed himself because he ended up asking— no, it was more like of a statement than it was a question because he already knew the obvious answer to it that it made it seem ridiculous that he would even ask, and he mentally facepalmed himself in the face.

Mahiru twirled around, eyes full of confusion and surprise as he questioned back,"Wait, you know what a Servamp is?"

The feeling of awareness and caution soon overwhelmed and overrode the brunette's senses and the words of 'This guy knows what a Servamp is' rang through his mind again and again, and he stepped back from him once more, wary of what the bluenette would do.

If this guy knew what a Servamp was, then he was definitely either working for an underground organisation, or working for the C3, or worse; a subclass to one of ‘them’ that had accidentally stumbled upon him and was going to alert ‘them’ that he was here.

A menacing look overtook Mahiru's face as he glared at Kuro, demanding for answers,"Who are you and what do you want?! Are you a subclass? A member of the C3? If so then please, kindly fuck off! I am not returning to that hellhole nor am I going to face your master or whatever!"

However, it seemed that after centuries of being alone and not having a single subclass, Mahiru had forgotten that subclasses can't make contracts with Servamps but no one was here to tell him that. Except Kuro, but we aren't counting him for now.

When Mahiru still received no reply from the other, he grunted in annoyance as he stormed towards the windows that were covered by the curtains, planning to make his grand escape,"Tch, I'm leaving! And I'm not coming back!"

Once hearing that, Kuro's senses jolted back to life as he yelped while reaching a hand for him,"Wait, no, please, stop—!"

But it seemed that his cries weren't necessary because Mahiru had temporarily forgotten that he was a Servamp, a vampire, and vampires couldn't stand the sunlight unlike humans, so the moment he pushed the curtains away, the light blinded him and caused a puff of smoke to appear.

"Gah—!"

"Mahiru?!" Kuro cried out frantically as he coughed a little to clear his oesophagus of the smoke and he swished his hand around, hoping to get a clearing to see where the hell the brunette was because he couldn't risk him disappearing again after that.

"Ah... this is so complicated and troublesome..." A tiny and squeaky voice that sounded like Mahiru's but a bit higher resounded through the smoke while it dissipated away.

When the smoke cleared, this was what Kuro saw:

The brown lynx that he picked up this morning was lying belly-flat on the floor, and it was scowling, glaring at him as if he just killed it's brethren right in front of it's eyes. It hissed at him with animalistic scorn and fury in it's voice, and he had to take a double-take at what he was looking at but it had beaten him to it,"Close the damn curtains! I hate the sunlight!"

Kuro sputtered before subconsciously nodding as if he was a servant to his master, which coincidentally was the lynx before him and was secretly a Servamp, a servant vampire; really, were the roles in this world seriously reversed or something?

He quickly tugged on the curtains and closed them, leaving no entry for sunlight to invade his home and causing the room to be shrouded in darkness until it was dark enough to allow the lynx to transform back into it's original form, which was the brunette we had seen earlier, Mahiru.

"Humans are such cruel creatures," Mahiru muttered out loud while laying down on the floor and if this wasn't such a crucial situation then Kuro might've actually laughed at that.

The brunette rose from his previous form on the floor to a sitting-up position, and he audibly sighed as the clogs in his brain worked out, and eventually, an idea struck him. He quickly rose to his feet and exclaimed loudly,"I know! I'm going to leave and go to the farthest distance that this damn temporary contract allows and once this twenty-four hours is up, you won't ever see me again! Even if the sunlight will hit me and turn me into an animal, I'll still leave."

"What? Wait, no, don't," Kuro protested as he snapped out of his daze but Mahiru was already on the go, rushing for the door.

Kuro saw red as the view he was seeing in front of him morphed into something much more sinister, darker; the walls were becoming wavy and swirly, sickening him, and he saw Mahiru straying further from his reach like the speed of light even though he was just a few meters away from him.

It was almost like ‘that’ time again.

With incredible and inhumane speed, he sprinted towards the door and slammed it shut with a loud bang just when Mahiru was about to open it with his hand hovering over the handle, and Kuro towered over the shorter brunette.

Mahiru's eyes widened from the shock and surprise as he turned to face him, and stuttered,"W-What are you doing?"

Kuro, face filled with desperation and longing that made the brunette’s heart throw itself into the gutter, muttered out with utter pain in his voice,"Please, don't leave me. We can talk something out. Just don't leave me."

Mahiru gulped as he saw genuine pain in the taller male's facial features and through those mystic eyes that looked very much like his own. Throughout the centuries, he has figured out how to detect liars through their facial features, their body language, their eyes; all of them were clues on figuring out if they were lying and he was actually quite good at it, but this man before him wasn't showing any signs of those clues.

His expression and emotions were genuine and it made him gulp on how real they felt, and he couldn't deny his request when he looked like that.

So, he nodded and agreed,"Fine, I'll stay."

Immediately, Kuro's eyes brightened up and much of the desperation and sadness in his eyes vanished, and it made Mahiru's heart break because he looked like a lost child being given fake hope.

Hope does many things to people; it fills them with determination and the will to live, to wait out the stormy seas and continue to search for land while on a boat that was about to be shipwrecked. But hope can also break people, and that was what Mahiru had dreaded for this male who seemed to be breathing in fake hope like it was oxygen.

He almost felt sympathetic and empathetic for him, a protective instinct washing over his being and the one thing that it told him to currently do was to protect the person in front of him.

Kuro held out a gentle hand for him to take, which Mahiru took on instinct as he led him in the now-clean apartment (thanks to Mahiru's expertise) and invited him to sit on the couch.

Mahiru did so and Kuro joined in, albeit the former moved so a comfortable distance was between them, and the brunette missed the look of hurt that flashed through the other's eyes. Kuro shook his head and stared at the brunette before breaking the ice,"Alright, let's just talk some things out, okay?"

Mahiru nodded and he took that as a sign to continue,"Okay. First things first, I do not have any intentions of hurting you or returning you to the C3. I am not affiliated with the C3 either, nor do I know any other Servamps out there in this world."

"But if you're not affiliated with the C3 or the other Servamps, how do you know what a Servamp is? I heard that that kind of information is tightly secured and sealed and only known to members or subclasses," Mahiru fired back.

Kuro winced at that and his mind ran through the endless possibilities for excuses, before settling for one that seemed the most plausible and was actually half-true,"I have siblings that know about it. One of them is working under the C3 and she tells us regularly about you all."

Before Mahiru could have his suspicions and alarms raised he continued,"But she is passive and doesn't hurt vampires so you are safe. In fact, she regularly protests against violence against vampires."

He could see how the brunette's eyes softened at that note as he nodded in understanding, and he smiled a little in return. Mahiru apologised in a soft spoken voice,"I understand. Thank you for telling me this. I'm sorry of my reckless actions towards you, I was simply afraid of going back to the C3 or the other Servamps. I've tried to avoid them for a long time."

Kuro raised his eyebrows at that,"Why do you avoid the other Servamps, whom I suppose are your 'siblings'?"

He could see the hesitance in the other's eyes as the latter shied away and avoided eye contact,"I... we're not on really friendly terms because of a certain incident that happened a long time ago. Like, super long ago.”

Kuro's eyes widened.

It couldn't be 'that', could it?

Mahiru was fidgeting in his spot, clearly uncomfortable to talk about this topic and it was obvious that he wanted to skip out on it because he has bottled it up for a long time, and Kuro couldn't blame him at all.

So, he decided to switch to another topic,"Okay, we won't talk about it. Let's focus on another thing, alright? It's fine. I keep a lot of things bottled up as well. I know the feeling of it."

Mahiru was taken by surprise at his answer before nodding in gratefulness,"A-ah, thank you. I appreciate the gesture. Let's talk about something else."

"Alright, I'll go first. What's your vampire name?" Kuro started off.

Mahiru stared at him weirdly,"Didn't you tell me that you had a sister working in the C3? She can tell you who I am. I think I'm pretty well-known in the organization, albeit I hate it."

Kuro shrugged,"I know. But I don't really care to remember the things she tells us. It's too troublesome to remember. She always ends up ranting about the organization in the end anyways." 

Mahiru clicked his tongue in annoyance before looking away again,"Who I am is not necessary for you to know. I'll just leave once twenty four hours are up and I also want you to forget about this incident so you can move on with your life without a speck of guilt."

"But what will I call you by for now then?" Kuro questioned, although he tried to bottle up the feeling of desperation building up in his lower abdomen when he heard that the other wouldn’t return.

Mahiru shrugged,"You can simply call me by the name that you named me this morning. 'Mahiru', was it? Yeah, you can call me that. What's your name though? I believe I haven't caught it."

"Kuro Ash. That's my name," Kuro replied and the former nodded his head in reply. An awkward silence reigned through the air for awhile after that, both parties unknowing of what to say to the other and the tension in the air was palpable and you could cut it with a knife. To end their suffering, both decided to speak up but at the wrong timing as they cut themselves off at the same time,"Um—"

Both blushed at the awkwardness between them two and Kuro decided to be the one to break the ice and the uncomfortableness,"Y-you can go first. Say your thoughts."

Mahiru nodded, slightly thankful for the opportunity as he questioned,"Um, I was just wondering... since we have this 'temporary-contract-that-forces-us-to-stay-together-for-twenty-four-hours' thing going on, can I please request that I stay in your house for the time being? I don't really have a place to stay except that cardboard fort you found me in. And moreover, I don't think that the contract would allow me to stray away from you during the time period.” He chuckled sheepishly.

Kuro eyes widened before bobbing his head vigorously,"Y-yeah, you can stay here. Actually, you can stay here for as long as you like. If you want, you can live here with me as well."

Mahiru, thinking of it as a joke, laughed at that,"What? Haha, no, silly. I'll simply leave once the twenty-four hour time limit is up so as to not disturb your life. You can move on after this and forget this ever happened. It's fine, really. I've survived for so long by myself, I think I can survive for another century. Thanks for the offer though."

Kuro was about to protest, to beg him to stay, to tell him that it was a serious offer and not just a joke when Mahiru got up and walked over to the kitchen,"I'm hungry. Do you have anything in your fridge? I can cook if you want me to."

"A-ah, um, no, wait, there's no need for that. Moreover, I don't think there's anything—"

"Oh come on, I'm the one staying over without further notice, aren't I? I should be the one to cook. Now let's see what you have," Mahiru replied back with a grin as he reached for the handle and cranked the fridge's door open.

And what he saw disappointed him.

Coca-cola bottles everywhere, some full and some half-full. Instant-meals at the back. Chocolate and ice-cream tubs literally jamming the whole place in and not a single sign of vegetables or fruits.

Mahiru stared at the fridge in disbelief and Kuro stared at his back with sweat rolling down his forehead, and the former slowly drawled out,"Kuro, where are the actual ingredients for food in your fridge?"

Kuro scratched his cheek sheepishly,"Um... I don't really eat that much food... It's too troublesome and a pain for me to do so I just buy instant-food that's easy to prepare..."

Silence reigned on them again with Mahiru's angered aura getting bigger and bigger with every second passing by.

.

.

.

"We're going out."

"What?"

"I said, we're going out. We're going to buy actual food and you cannot say no. Hurry up and prepare and bring whatever you need. Money, keys, phone, whatever. We're going out."

"But why?"

"BECAUSE YOU NEED ACTUAL FOOD INSTEAD OF THIS SHIT!" Mahiru screamed as he slammed the door of the fridge shut a little bit too hard, and he glared at Kuro with an accusing face,"HOW DO YOU EVEN SURVIVE?! I'm immortal and I don't even need to eat that much, but you, oh my god! We're going out this instance!"

"I'm dragging you along by the collar of your neck if I have to!" He said as he stormed towards the couch and crossed his arms like a mother berating her son on something he had done wrong.

"But—"

"No buts! After we buy the ingredients, I'll cook something healthy for you to eat! God, how do humans like you even exist? Hurry up and grab your stuff and let's go!" Mahiru cut him off as he ushered for Kuro to prepare.

Kuro stared at him with wide eyes before sighing in defeat as he got his lazy ass off the couch, deciding that it would be fruitless to argue with the housewife as he went to his room and grabbed his wallet, phone, keys, earpiece and some other stuff and stashed them in his sling bag.

Before leaving his room, he stared at the long mirror and realised that he was still wearing his uniform but he shrugged it off; no other student would be out or would recognize him anyways.

Once he exited, he saw Mahiru by the steps near the door, wearing his boots and he raised an eyebrow at that.

Mahiru seemed to notice his confusion and he questioned while slipping his other boot on,"What are you looking at me like that for?"

"Huh? Uh, no, um, it's nothing... But can I ask, why are you wearing your boots for? I mean, you'll probably only be able to be with me in your animal form so you probably don't need to wear your boots or something," Kuro sheepishly replied.

Mahiru registered his words in and contemplated about them for awhile, but shrugged it off with a slight grin,"Well, just in case, right? And the sun is setting pretty soon so I'll be able to transform back when that happens."

Kuro nodded as he approached the door and opened it, moving to the side so Mahiru could exit first,"After you."

Mahiru chuckled,"No, I don't need that. I'll just be on your neck in my lynx form. You can go first. I'll follow suit."

"Fine by me," Kuro shrugged as he watched Mahiru transform back into the lynx that he had coincidentally picked up this morning and with amazing agility (and probably with vampiric strength), it had jumped up and landed on his neck with no problem at all.

He stood still for a few seconds to get adjusted to the feeling of fur on his nape and the weight on his shoulders because it was a new feeling, and he nodded while sighing,"You're a bit heavy."

"Shut up. You'll get used to it. Moreover, I'm a bit smaller than the average lynx so be grateful," Mahiru snarked back in his squeaky and high voice, but true enough, his body was smaller of that of an average lynx but he was still a lynx nonetheless.

He wondered why he didn’t notice that his body was smaller than an average lynx’s when he picked him up from that makeshift cardboard fort.

Kuro clicked his tongue in annoyance before stepping out of the door, making sure to lock it behind him, and started walking to the lift that his apartment building had.

Before he got too far though, he heard glass breaking nearby and he whipped his head to look at where the source came from but he couldn't pinpoint it.

'Was it my imagination? Probably... Ah whatever, thinking about it is a pain,' Kuro grumbled to himself in his mind as he continued walking, unknowing of the danger that this path will take him to in the future.

~{&}~

A group of people stared at the empty apartment in disbelief and disappointment, and a certain pink-haired man with clothes looking like a magician groaned,"What the hell! I thought that the stupid little lynx was supposed to be here!"

Another male that had neon green spiky hair chuckled to himself, throwing knives in the middle of the each space between his fingers,"It seems not. Either he was lucky or he knew that we were coming. I doubt the second option though. Most people don't know who I am and that infuriates me to no end."

His expression turned dark at the last part of his sentence but he shook his head and he pointed to the pink-haired male and the ravenette beside him,"Belkia, go with him and follow Kuro Ash."

"And make the show flashy, alright? We don't like mundane things do we?" He snarked mischievously, earning a smirk from the magician while a melancholic look from the raven.

He apparently noticed the distress that the raven had and he questioned,"Hey, what's up? Why are you looking so down?"

The raven quickly looked up before shaking his head,"No, it's nothing. What were we supposed to do again? To follow... Kuro Ash and start the show? Was that it?"

"There was one more thing, and that was to make the show interesting. Get your head in the game. We'll spike fear into their hearts tonight and I want them to know that I'm finally here. I'll get my revenge for what Despair did to Teacher," The neon green-head growled out with anger, and both the magician and the raven nodded.

"We shall not disappoint or fail you," The said in chorus as they jumped out from the broken window, and the greenette smiled in return.

He soon turned his head towards the door that the previous inhabitants had just left, and a distraught and eery smirk overtook his face.

"I wonder how you'll entertain me, Despair."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much lol. Just some ol’ crack because I’ve got nothing else to do.

The two walked along the streets without a care in the world— scratch that, Mahiru was languidly lazing on Kuro's shoulders while the latter was grumbling about something that concerned on how buying groceries was a chore to do and that he'd rather just buy instant ramen noodles.

"Shut up. This is for your own good. Seriously, how lazy are you to not even buy proper food? Even an immortal being like me who doesn't necessarily need a lot of food to survive can eat healthier than you," Mahiru's squeaky voice snarked as he pushed his lynx-head nearer to his ear, sending electric shocks up his spine.

It's fur brushed against his earlobe and he had to bite down and quell the screaming entity inside of him that told him to throw the lynx off his shoulders.

It wasn't necessarily bad to the touch, but it wasn't good either because god knows what has become of the people who have dared touch him in such a place; skewered alive, definitely. But, well, he'll bear with it for now.

His sharp eyes caught onto the convenience store that had the big and bold sign of 'OPEN 24/7' pasted on top of it, and he wondered if it was really what it was stated to be, to be open all the time. The night-shift workers had to be paid more then.

He treaded into the domain that he has tried to avoid so many times just because he deemed it a hassle to and had ordered food to come to his house, and he squinted his eyes at the bright lights that overstimulated his senses as he hissed at it; why did all stores have lights this bright? He hated it.

A grumbling sigh escaped out of his mouth as he instantly headed for the instant-noodle cups section, only to be slapped on his cheek by a tail that belonged to the lynx on his shoulders.

"What?" He glared at it, wondering why he had picked up such a troublesome little animal. 

( "Because you wanted to. You picked it up because you felt that in some way, it would repay 'him', didn't you? You naïve fool. Nothing that you will ever do would ever pay 'him' back," a voice resounded through his mind. )

"Shut up," He growled lowly with animalistic anger that made Mahiru turn his head to look at him with concern, and once he noticed that, he looked away and apologised,"sorry, that was not meant to be directed at you."

Mahiru nodded his head in return, seemingly obedient for once and he scoffed at that; when had he ever been this docile since the afternoon? There must be some kind of trick or trap going on here. And he didn't want to find out.

Just when he was going to take a step back into his paradise, another slap on the cheek came and by this time, he had enough of the lynx's plays.

He grabbed onto the tail and he snarled with underlying venom in his words,"What the hell are you doing that for? What do you want? Stop slapping me with your godforsaken tail or I will cut it by the time we go back home."

Mahiru dramatically gasped softly in his ear,"Animal cruelty! I'll have every animal agency sue you! And let me remind you, you picked me up. You shouldn't have. And I am also an exotic species so a lot of organisations will come after you. You are such a cruel human."

Kuro clicked his tongue in annoyance as he released his grip on the poor tail,"How dramatic are you? You do know that if you sue me, they will take you as well, right? They'll lock up in a tight and secluded cage for god who knows how long."

Mahiru's lynx-body shrugged in compliance,"So be it. Nothing that I haven't gone through before, lynx or human form."

"Wait, human form? What the hell does that mean? What have you been through—"

"Anyways," Mahiru cut him off before he could go on and question it even further because he didn't want to tell him anything about that,"let's go back on the topic of why I was slapping you, hm? It's a trade off. We don't talk about what I just mentioned and I tell you the reason I've been slapping you."

"I'd really rather know about why the hell you just said that you were caged in your human and lynx form instead of the reason why you were slapping me—"

"Oh well, you don't get a choice. Case closed," Mahiru quipped as he quickly supplied the reason before Kuro could question him again,"the reason why I've been slapping you is because I told you that we would be getting proper ingredients and food. Not instant ramen."

"But it's my money," Kuro growled.

"But it's your health that I'm talking about," Mahiru smirked in his own favour, earning a 'tsk' from the bluenette as he mumbled 'this is such a pain' underneath his breath and he gave in to the lynx as he turned on his heel and approached the ingredients section.

Kuro grumbled while Mahiru merely nuzzled his head into his nape as a sign of consolation or gratitude of finally being compliant and not just a rude jerk who did whatever he wished.

Huh. Who really was the 'Eve' and the 'Servamp' in this relationship?

Well, this temporary contract isn't going to last very long, so he could make the time count by reforming the NEET's life into a simpler yet healthier life that would satisfy any other human being.

Kuro yawned as he stretched his limbs that have been not used for too long and moaned slightly at the pleasurable pops that have been elicited from the stretching but Mahiru merely cringed in return, his nose scrunching up in disgust. 

Now how the hell was a lynx even doing that, he didn't know, but the lynx wasn't exactly an actual lynx either so do the maths.

"How long have you not stretched your limbs for?" The Servamp wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes in disapproval and disgust, to which the human could only shrug his shoulders in reply.

"I don't know. Days, weeks, months, decades, centuries, millenniums. Pick your favourite. I didn't care enough to count."

"What an imprudent human being like you... how do you even exist and survive? I would've thought the likes of you would've died off by now," The lynx whispered into his ear, releasing a deep and exhausted sigh.

Kuro scoffed in return and wondered why he was the one sounding exhausted when he hasn't even done any of the walking at all, but he guessed that it accounted to a syndrome called 'being burnt out by his very existence' syndrome, AKA 'I can't deal with your shit and I want to die' syndrome.

Well, everybody that has been with him for more than an hour would've gotten that syndrome by that point, except for a certain maniacal raven called Tsubaki that sat beside him during class and basically followed him around like a lost puppy. But that raven also causes him to get the syndrome so maybe it was a trade off? A trade off that states in it's term of conditions that 'If someone were to not get this syndrome within one hour of spending time with him, then it would cause him to get the syndrome instead'? Was it in the rules somewhere?

Ah whatever, thinking about it was a pain and would lower his self esteem even more than now even though it was really under the minimum amount at this point.

"Alright, get that. And that. And that," Mahiru instructed him and he obeyed without a complaint as he began to grab ingredients from the aisle and dropped them into the small shopping trolley that he had subconsciously taken.

Why was he even obeying a lynx? What was this, Ratatouille? But the 'Servamps and Eves' version of Ratatouille? 

He didn't know at this point.

By the time the lynx had finished ordering him on what to do (it should be the other way around!), he looked back at the trolley and only now realised how much stuff that he had taken while on auto-pilot.

He grumbled as he ran a hand across his face,"Isn't this a bit too much...?"

Mahiru shook his feline head vigorously, sending rumbles and vibration to his shoulders which in turn shook them a bit as well, and he exclaimed,"This is not too much! I've seen what is inside your refrigerator and you need more food this instant! I can cook you something! And moreover, your refrigerator is big so it's fine. It'll fit."

"No, that's not what I was talking about... I was talking about the total cost of it all..." Kuro sighed out loud, and Mahiru seemed to have paused on reality as he stopped moving.

This concerned the bluenette, wondering what had happened to him to have just paused entirely like him pausing a YouTube video out of the blue, and he flicked at his forehead to get his attention.

"Hey. Earth to Mahiru. Earth to Mahiru. You okay?" Kuro asked with concern evident in his deep voice that was usually monotone but was now brimming with emotion, and hearing the sudden change in tone, Mahiru was snapped back to reality.

Mahiru tripped on his words but managed to get some incoherent words out,"O-Oh, I, uh... um, sorry. I'm sorry if it costs too much. You can put some of them back if you want to."

"No," Kuro replied without skipping a beat, already pushing the trolley towards the cash register,"it's fine. I have more than enough in my bank account to last me a lifetime. This wouldn't even put a dent on my account. And I don't really spend a lot anyways. I'll just say that I wanted to treat myself if they ask me why there's suddenly a huge spending."

"They?" 

"My siblings. They're the ones supplying me with money to live. I don't work at any place after all. They're a bit too overbearing and they give me too much money and I always end up wondering what to do with it," He added in while lining up.

"Hmm... siblings, huh..." Mahiru merely hummed in response, an eyebrow quirking up in response. However, his humming sounded... empty, sad, crestfallen, and Kuro wondered why.

It was his turn on the cashier now, and Kuro solemnly placed the items he got onto the counter while the lady behind it started to scan the barcode and he watched as the numbers began to pile up and mount themselves over the other.

'Hm... do the others spend a lot on groceries too? I mean, they aren't as lazy as me and they're more productive, so I guess they do... but wouldn't that cost more? And they're supplying me and Old Child with money too... where do they even get all of the money from?' He questioned in his head.

Now that he thought about it, where did they really get all of the hard-earned money from? It was getting suspicious on how much they've been giving him and the amount was always consistent.

Could it be... the mafia?

No, no, no. He can't think like that. There was no way that any of his siblings would be associated in the mafia because that was illegal and would attract too much attention, and attention was something that they had all agreed on that they disliked and would rather fly under the radar.

But... considering their circumstances, if 'he' was in that kind of position before, then wouldn't that silver-head be in 'his' position as well? 

He grumbled as he ran a hand through his straight blue locks, groaning that this whole mess was such a pain to deal with, but he quickly remembered that he had a sister that was working in the C3.

Which department she was in, he couldn't remember. Definitely not the electronics department because she wasn't that good in handling that kind of stuff. Maybe... the intelligence-department?

Did the C3 pay well? How much do they pay? Wasn't his sister working full time in there? If so, and if the C3 did pay well, then that would clear some doubt on the mysteries of the financial income that his siblings were earning. But what about that stripper? And what about that acting freak that always seemed to ramble on and off about Shakespeare? 

No... if taking into consideration of their circumstances, then that stripper would be in a god damn mansion by now. How convenient.

But what about the acting freak? What would have become of him? Definitely not a musician, that's for sure, because if he remembered correctly, that guy was into acting and not into music. Then... a play-actor? A performer? An entertainer? Seems like something that blonde would do. These types of careers, if you could last in them, were the types that paid well, weren't they? Then he would understand why they had so much money.

Ah... thinking about his siblings lives were such a pain.

"Ah, Kuro? Is that you?"

At those five words that were voiced out through a voice that sounded like it belonged to a certain little raven, Kuro felt his heart stop and felt the need for the ground to swallow him whole.

Ah, this was so troublesome.

~{&}~

“Hey, have you gotten wind of where that stupid and reckless ‘Despair’ is recently? I’ve not seen him for a long time. Centuries, really. He’s flown under the radar for too long and I can’t let him continue like this. He’s so under the radar that even I don’t know where he is at this point. Someone has to check in with him. I don’t want to be the one who would do it but he leaves me no choice. I hate him but he’s still blood related to me in a way, so he’s still part of my family. I need to know where he is. Even if he doesn’t like me snooping around, I won’t take no as an answer.” 

“Oh? What’s this? You’re suddenly caring for him? But didn’t you tell me that you’ve scornfully hated him with every inch of your being? What’s with the sudden change of attitude?”

“Shut up! I do what I want!”

“Okay, okay, I accept that answer please stop hitting me with your books! Come on, who exactly is the Eve and the Servamp in this relationship?”

“I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for you! You were the one who wanted to have a contract with me, not the other way around! If it weren’t for you catching me off guard while I was preparing to leave, I wouldn’t be here! I would’ve been in Alaska by this point!”

“Then lucky me, huh?”

“Shut up, you damn stripper!”

“Alright, alright... I’ll look into it. I’ll try to get information on where Despair is. However, judging by the time and circumstance, ‘they’ should be together by this point in time...”

“ ‘They’? Who’s ‘they’?”

“A-Ah, nothing. It’s just a hypothesis. However, I would suggest going to a certain plaza by a certain point of time. I think it would serve as a vital clue to where Despair currently is...”

“And what makes you so sure?”

“Well, it’s merely a hypothesis. But great conclusions come from great hypotheses, don’t they?”

“Tch, fine. I’ll go then.”

“Alright! Let us prepare to leave! Dodo, please get the car ready, we’ll leave in five minutes! The place is nearby and I’ve been there before so I know my way around. I’ll just guide you.”

“Alright, I’ll get the car ready.”

“Thank you, Dodo! We’ll just go and prepare our stuff and then we’ll leave. Ah, what a jovial occasion! We’re finally going out to the plaza! I can show you around and we can also buy stuff there! I’ve been meaning to buy a limited edition handbag that I’ve seen on sale and I heard that it’s being sold there! This calls for a stripping occasion!”

“DON’T STRIP, LILY! GET YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON THIS INSTANCE!”

“Ahaha, whatever you say, Misono!”

“I’M SERIOUS! DON’T STRIP! LISTEN TO ME! LILY!”


	5. Chapter 5

"Ah, Kuro? Is that you?"

At those five words that were voiced out through a voice that sounded like it belonged to a certain little raven, Kuro felt his heart stop and felt the need for the ground to swallow him whole.

'Ah, this was so troublesome,' Kuro groaned to himself in his mind.

A familiar and slightly screechy deep voice that certainly belonged to a male that Kuro most definitely did not know called out, and Kuro had to stop himself from shitting his pants once he heard it because oh my God, please do not tell him that 'he' was in the store right now.

Instead, he did what a normal and reclusive introvert like himself would do when placed in such a situation like this:

He pretended to not know who the voice belonged to and continued to wait for the lady behind the cashier counter to finish scanning all of his items and he casted his stare down onto the floor to appear inconspicuous, finding the smooth tiled floor to be interesting at the moment.

But it appears that lady luck was not on his side today because the owner of the voice clasped a hand on his shoulder, centimetres away from Mahiru's tail, and he inwardly cursed at himself for agreeing to go out.

This was the types of situations that he wanted to avoid so he barely went out, but since Mahiru had insisted, he subconsciously complied like it was normal for him to, like he was obligated to, and it scared him on how compliant he was.

And look at where that has brought him now. The very situation he has tried to avoid for so long.

How splendid of his luck.

Mahiru jumped at the newcomer and his eyes darted towards the person, but an ominous feeling grew inside of him as he stared at those crimson red eyes that belonged to the raven and he narrowed his eyes, instantly taking a dislike towards him.

Those eyes that the raven possessed, it was just like his; a monster's, and his eyes didn't suit his face at all, not like how they did to Kuro's.

Kuro's and the raven's standing before him's eyes were almost the same, as well as his own eyes, but unlike Kuro who's eyes suited his face and made him a tad bit more attractive because of his blue locks, the raven's eyes did not.

Black and red did mix well, but most of the time, the outcome of that potion was evil.

Or maybe he was just being biased because he did view Kuro as slightly attractive and he didn't know whether his own crimson red eyes suited his face or not so he didn't have a say in this, but, well, society be damned, he'll voice out his thoughts.

However, that feeling that told him to stay away from the male in front of him was still present and he hissed slightly at him.

Even if he wasn't in his human form at the moment, anyone could see that the lynx wasn't in a good mood; stony, jaw rigid. His eyes were cold yet flaring—glowing, red-hot, and Kuro immediately noticed the change in attitude.

He raised an eyebrow at that; what caused him to feel this way? 

However, one look at to where the lynx was glaring at immediately solved most of his questions; it was Tsubaki, who was looking a tad bit more... intimidated for some reason.

Huh. Well, that was a new emotion that he thought the raven could never project.

He glanced at Tsubaki again before turning back to the cashier, and he grumbled,"What are you standing there for? What do you want? If you ask me, I'd definitely not block the way of other customers who want to come in."

Tsubaki immediately noticed that he was standing in front of the entrance and was blocking some other people who wanted to come in, and softly apologised as he stepped to the side.

"Someone you know?" Mahiru whispered into his ear, careful to keep it to a low minimum as to not let the newcomer hear him because he had a bad feeling about him.

Kuro rolled his eyes,"A friend of mine."

"You have friends? That's surprising. You don't look like the type to have friends."

"Wow, you're actually super toxic. Who taught you to have this much sass? I'm going to hunt that person who did down," He hissed and growled at the pretentious lynx who stuck his tongue out. He merely rolled his eyes again. 

Kuro sighed as he whispered in a hushed tone while he inserted his card into the card reader and waited for it to emit a beeping noise before withdrawing back,"Fine, I'll reword it because you're so rude.   
Yeah, a classmate of mine. I don't like him though. He's too troublesome for me."

"What's his name?"  The lynx questioned.

"Tsubaki. That's his name."

Mahiru's eyes instantly widened, a resounding click being heard in his head as the clogs clicked into place and set his head in motion for the first time in centuries.

"Tsu...ba...ki...?" He carefully drawled out, pronouncing each syllable with attentiveness as something in him came alive at the mention of the name, and it screamed at him to get Kuro and himself out of the place immediately to somewhere else where they would not be in proximity with the owner of the said name.

However, his body could not move and he could only watch as he cashier gently placed all of his items into the plastic bags that the store had (why didn't she ask 'paper or plastic' first?) while a fiery demon in him yelled and burned inside.

He couldn't move even if he wanted to, like he was suddenly paralyzed by the mere thought and mention of that name.

So all he could do for now is give him an icy wicked glare that pierced through his entire being as the gates of Hell opened up behind him, releasing a gust of hot wind that whipped Kuro's uniform behind and the temperature in the vicinity dropped significantly, even with the air-conditioner on.

Metaphorical demons of Mahiru's mind came forth, dancing around in flames with songs of, "Tsubaki, huh? I wonder who that is... oh! Didn't that name belong to a certain raven that brought you so much trouble before?" before erupting into earsplitting shrieks of laughter.

He took in the look of utter horror gracing Tsubaki's face as he growled lowly, and Tsubaki backed off with his jaw jittering and his eyes wide.

"—ahiru. Mahiru. Mahiru! Stop that! Stop glaring at him!"

He barely registered the calls for his name as in a fraction of a second, his icy glare disappeared and the gates of Hell that opened behind him closed shut, and the demons of his mind were abruptly stopped in their hauntings.

He glanced at Kuro who was staring wide-eyed at him, then to Tsubaki who had the same horrified expression as he did before realizing what he was doing and his face immediately softened into something that looked almost apologetic and sincere, which was freaky when considering that a lynx was doing this.

He nuzzled his face into Kuro's nape as a sign of apology without using words to voice out his thoughts, causing Kuro to sigh a he went to spoil him a bit by reaching forward and petting his head a little, earning a pleased mewl from the lynx.

"You damn spoilt little asshole," Kuro whispered as he added too many middle names in front of the 'asshole' but he couldn't hide the small smile from forming on his face.

"Um, guys? Did you forget that I'm still here or something...?"

Both heads turned to hiss at the raven at the same time for ruining the perfect moment (wait, did Mahiru actually consider being with this stranger as 'nice'?), causing Tsubaki to swallow the forming lump in his throat quickly.

"What do you want?" Kuro grumbled as he made a quick 'thank you' when he heard 'thank you for shopping with us' from the cashier as he was handed his groceries and carried them on both arms.

Tsubaki stared at him for awhile before laughing it off while they both exited the store together,"Don't need to be so cold, Kuro! I'm just your classmate! Your seat mate even!"

"Don't know you. Now piss off. I've got places to be at, like my online game right now. Heard that they've got a sale for a character," Kuro brushed him off harshly, and Tsubaki made a dramatic look of betrayal as he clasped a hand over his heart.

Kuro merely clicked his tongue in annoyance at him before heading off to the direction that his house was at, but he was abruptly stopped when the raven grabbed his arm.

He snarled,"What the hell do you want? Leave me alone. I've gotta put these groceries in my fridge and I would appreciate it if you don't disturb me in the process. And I've also gotta settle something with Mahiru in the meantime."

A quizzical and confused look overtook Tsubaki's facial features while he let go of Kuro's arm as he questioned,"'Mahiru'? Who's that? You didn't tell me that you've got a roommate. But then again, you detest human interaction."

'Shit, I've said too much,' Kuro cursed inwardly at himself before shaking his head slightly and pointing at the lynx around his shoulders,"Mahiru is this lynx right here. I, uh, got him this morning. Wait, didn't you mention about knowing that I picked up a lynx when class was still ongoing? You stalker."

"You... you named it?" Tsubaki's demeanor took a 180 turn from the irritating idiot to the suspicious guy you always see lurking behind your school as he asked with incredulity in his voice and his eyes narrowed at the lynx, the same lynx that was currently glaring at him with hostility.

Kuro shrugged,"If it's staying with me, then it's gotta have a name I can call it by."

A slight slap to the cheek by the tail and a half assed glare by yours truly sent the silent message of 'shut up, I'm not going to stay at your home', but Kuro merely ignored it completely. Mahiru frowned at his stubbornness; why was this guy so adamant on keeping him? A normal human would've been happy to just get rid of him and he's trying to keep to that tradition. 

Was this NEET not a human or something? An alien, perhaps? Or something other-worldly?

Tsubaki gave him the cold stare for a few seconds until Kuro got sick of it as he turned again,"Whatever. Just, leave me alone. I have things to do and unfortunately, not enough time to spare for your maniacal shenanigans. Goodbye."

"Wait!" Tsubaki exclaimed as he suddenly appeared in front of him with inhuman speed, arousing Mahiru's suspicions while the raven continued to stop him,"how about we stroll through the plaza for a bit? It's not everyday I see you outside!"

Mahiru rubbed his mouth beside Kuro's ear, fur bristling against the skin as goosebumps rose throughout the latter's arm, and the lynx whispered,"This guy is dangerous. Don't go near him. We have to go."

'Don't you think I know that?' Kuro grumbled in his mind as he whispered back,"He's trying too hard at the whole communication thing and I know firsthand that it's bound to backfire."

"That's not what I meant you dumbass of an antisocial NEET—"

A round of applause coming from somewhere further in the plaza caught their attention as all three heads craned their necks to get a glimpse of what it was.

As the opportunist he is, Tsubaki gleamed up as he took this chance of when Kuro was still distracted as he grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the source of the applause forcefully with a grin.

"Hey—!"

"Come, Kuro! Let's see what they're clapping at!" Tsubaki sang his laughter (taunts) as he continued dragging the poor bluenette who got trapped into his scheme and rabbit hole and was currently struggling to free himself from the raven's grasp.

Unfortunately for him, his strength wasn't on par with the raven's (now that was super weird and concerning) and he was dragged all the way to where the source of the applause was coming from.

To his dismay and concern (plus a tiny bit of shock), it was a pink haired magician that looked too familiar for his liking and comfortability (so much so that it sent shivers down his spine of imagining what was to come), and the so-called magician was currently performing tricks.

Mahiru narrowed his eyes at the magician, sensing a familiar aura and a familiar scent that the magician was emitting before realizing it; it was the smell of a vampire's blood.

This magician was a vampire.

He wanted to drag Kuro back, to get them both out of the picture so that he wouldn't have to deal with the monster in front of them at all, but it seemed futile when the magician turned around to face them and seemingly... gleamed up at the sight of them.

"Hello, hello, students! Along the worthless road of youth, won't you stop and watch my show?" The pink haired magician exclaimed loudly, too loud and too obnoxious to the hearing as he dangerously drawled out two swords from his hat.

"Wow, a street performer! How interesting! You don't see that a lot nowadays," Tsubaki grinned as clasped his hands together in excitement, but Kuro and Mahiru weren't that lucky.

Alarm bells were ringing in both of their heads but the crowd that seemed to be forming around them and Tsubaki seemed oblivious to it all as they clapped unanimously, and the magician had this air of pride surrounding him as he thanked everyone for the applause.

A strike of cold anticipation coursed through Kuro's veins while he gulped the forming lump in his throat, and the magician turned to place his focus on them as he smirked widely. 

"Now then, let us begin the show!"


	6. Chapter 6

"Now then, let us begin the show!" The magician cried out with enthusiasm as he fished out a coin from his pocket.

Kuro rose an eyebrow at that and he nearly jumped when the suspicious-looking pink haired man pointed at someone close to him but not essentially him, and he looked at who he was pointing to and saw that it was Tsubaki. Tsubaki seemed to be donning the look of confusion and slight shock as he pointed at himself to reaffirm that the magician was pointing at him and when the latter nodded, he decided to step out.

The magician clasped a hand over Tsubaki's shoulder and he announced while flipping the coin on one hand,"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall show you all a trick! A coin flipping trick!"

"This person right here is going to flip the coin," He says as he places the coin onto the raven's hand,"but before he flips it, I shall guess whether the outcome will be heads or tails. If I don't guess it correctly, then he shall walk off with the coin. But if I do..."

A sickening smirk spread out on his face as a glimmer of mischievousness flashed across his eyes,"...Then there will be consequences."

The temperature in the vicinity dropped drastically once he said that.

"Oh, he's gonna be killed. I just know it," Mahiru grumbled underneath his breath, allowing for only Kuro to hear as he was literally perched on the bluenette's shoulder.

"Only if he dies," Kuro replied without skipping a beat, hiding his slight concern underneath a façade of nonchalance.

Mahiru stared at him in slight confusion and incredulity with a face that screamed 'shouldn't that be obvious you airhead?',"...Yes. That's what 'killing him' means..."

Kuro sighed disappointedly in reply.

He was about to call out to Tsubaki, to tell him to come back because this guy meant trouble but the raven eagerly nodded without a care in the world (ah, ignorance was bliss) and fiddled with the coin.

"Now then!" The magician exclaimed as he pointed at the raven,"I shall go on a limb and guess that your next toss's outcome will be tails! Done saying that, you shall now flip the coin!"

Tsubaki nodded once more as his finger jolted up, bringing the coin along with the momentum, and Kuro's and Mahiru's eyes (as well as the audience's) stared intently at the coin as it drafted and sliced through the air.

It was like the earth was suddenly in slow-motion and Kuro could easily see the coin turning, and his eyes widened.

The outcome was going to be tails, just like the magician had predicted.

He wished his feet would move, he really did wish that they did. He tried to push his feet into moving and sprinting for the clueless raven to get him out of the mess that he had brought on himself, but his feet only moved a fraction of a centimeter, and all he could do was watch the coin slowly fall back to Tsubaki's hand with wide eyes.

Tsubaki caught the coin with ease as his palm was spaced out, and everybody could obviously see the coin on the tail's side being displayed out, causing 'oohs' and 'wow' and 'aahs' from the crowd.

"Hahaha! As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, I've guessed correctly! Such is my magnificence and power!" The pinky described himself as egotistically as possible, making him sound like a douchebag to Mahiru's and Kuro's clear ears but apparently not so to the crowd as they clapped irregardless.

"These people have no idea what's going on, do they?" Mahiru sighed in frustration and Kuro had to agree with him on that one; these people were idiots to not see the monster in front of them all.

The magician, or who Kuro would call as 'Pinky' from now on because he couldn't catch his name in the midst of the wind and distraction from the other people in the vicinity, sang his last laughters before they eventually died down and he smirked.

Once again, an ominous feeling washed over the bluenette and the lynx as that smirk felt so wrong on so many levels, and they could feel anxiety welling up from both of them; and they didn't even have an official contract with each other yet!

'No, scratch that,' Mahiru chided himself in his mind,'I'm not going to have a contract with him. After this twenty-four hours time limit is up, I'm leaving. I won't even write a letter to him. No wait, I should at least leave a notice so that he wouldn't panic. That's the last thing I want him to do.'

The lynx paused on his words as he reflected back on them, and something stood out from those lines.

Why was he sounding like a concerned partner to this NEET who he had only met this morning? Did he actually care for him? That didn't make sense. He only met him briefly and didn't form an emotional link to him. 

Hell, the bluenette didn't even know what his sin or vampire-name (the name that he has kept with him for all this time, the name he so dreaded, the name he hated so much that even feeling it roll off his tongue was unpleasant) was!

But still, he did feel concern for the wellbeing of the bluenette, and he didn't know why at all. 

'It's because he's just a human. A fragile human with an oh-so breakable body. A body so fragile that even a stab wound could be fatal. A body that can't even resist the temptation of Death. A body with an expiry date that's too short to make anything they did in their lives count. Him panicking would just put something on your conscience, and you don't want that,' a voice resounded out from the depths of his mind.

Well, yeah... that sounded reasonable.

Looks like his mind could generate excuses on the get-go as quick as the person beside them was inhaling air through his nose.

"How's that, Kuro!" Tsubaki triumphantly quirked as he started trotting towards them both,"wasn't that cool? Wasn't that interesting? Coming here with me wasn't a waste of your time after all—"

The raven was stopped when Pinky clasped a hand on his shoulder, and Pinky pulled him back to his side.

"What—"

"Now, ladies and gentlemen!" Pinky laughed again, his laughter being eerily similar to Tsubaki's maniacal ones,"the first question is—!"

He held out four fingers, as if stating that each finger was to symbolize an option or an answer to the question,"What is the reason that I stopped this young man?"

As rumbles rang throughout the crowd and the amount of dread mounted against each other in Kuro's and Mahiru's bellies increased, he listed out the options,"First, he ignored me. Second, he stole the spotlight from me. Third, I'm hungry. Fourth, he ignored me."

"The answer is..." A dreadful glint shone in his ruby red eyes.

Abruptly, an ear-piercing cry of pain rang loudly in the crowd and screaming could be heard followed afterwards as people scrambled to get away from the scene, but Kuro and Mahiru were frozen to the ground like statues.

They saw the magician sink his sharp and long fangs into Tsubaki's neck with a loud crunch as the fangs pierced through the layers of skin protecting the blood, and the same red liquid rained everywhere, even tainting Kuro's cheek a bit.

"ALL OF THE ABOVE! BUT FOR IGNORING ME, HE DIES!" Pinky glared at everyone who were unfortunate to catch upon his sight, and screams continued.

"TSUBAKI!" Kuro yelled throughout the mass panic and accidentally bumped shoulders with somebody else, causing him to lose his footing a bit (but not for a certain lynx that was unfortunately thrown off from his previous position and onto the ground), but it seemed that Kuro was too overtaken by fear to notice that Mahiru was gone from his shoulders.

He knelt down by the side of the currently wounded raven and watched from the corner of the eye as the magician laughed and jumped (unbelievably high by the way) and latched himself upside-down on a streetlight with only his legs hooked around them to keep himself up.

"Ahahahaha! Thank you! Thank you for the applause! My flashy show did get everyone's attention, I see!" Pinky chirped loudly in pride, seemingly enjoying himself too much,"I'm more of a vampire than a magician, aren't I?"

One word rang through Kuro's ears the whole time.

Vampire.

This guy was a freaking vampire.

He couldn't believe that he was so stupid to not have realised it all this time when the tell-tale signs were right there, out in the open, and he couldn't believe that he didn't realise it when his sister was working in the freaking C3, and that a Servamp was with him (and he was the one who admitted to having known what a Servamp was).

"V-Vampire?" He couldn't stop the word from escaping his gaping mouth in time as he knelt by Tsubaki's weakened side, and when Pinky heard that cry, his smirk widened even more, exposing one of his bloodstained fangs.

"Ah yes. You are the one he told us about, aren't you?And why do you sound so shocked? You met one this morning, right?" He laughed as he hanged upside-down, and his voice turned on an even eerier note,"I wonder which you picked up~!"

He launched himself in the air just enough to hoist himself so that he was sitting upright on the streetlight pole, and he sang,"There are seven vampire siblings, each of every type. And which one of them did you get your hands on?"

"Apathy? Selfishness? Scorn? Obstinacy? Arrogance? Fear?" He grinned as he listed off each option one by one, before shaking his head,"nope, nope, nope! You picked up neither! Your lucky self, or unlucky if you would put it that way, picked up the oldest of them all!"

A dreaded silence was put between them two, before he broke it with a glare in his eyes but a smirk on his face.

"The vampire of Despair, Shirota."

Kuro's eyes widened at that name that seemed to roll of the magician's tongue, trying to double-confirm whether what he said was actually true and that it wasn't his imagination playing tricks on him again like before,"Shi...Shirota...?"

Pinky nodded enthusiastically as he hopped off from the streetlight and unto the ground, doing a backflip midair because he was petty and liked to show off.

Once he landed safely on the ground, he stuck his tongue out mockingly as he presented his swords that were illuminating underneath the light,"We don't like vampire-cats running around in the wild, do we? Therefore, shelter or skewer?!"

"Come on, come on! A round of applause! Come out, Shirota!" He exclaimed with arms flailing around, hoping to attract more attention than he already did,"bold and vampire-like! Let's see who can kill the most! Sakkun also wishes for that—"

Before he could continue his bouts of meaningless laughter anymore, a looming shadow casted over him and before he knew it, a tremendous force came at his abdomen before it forced and pushed him back crashing into a store through the window.

The figure landed on the ground gracefully and his boots (as well as the hand that was keeping him balanced) created enough friction to stop him from sliding any further, and Kuro widened his eyes.

"Mahiru!" He cried out as Mahiru approached him with that red jacket, or coat, of his that looked identical to his own,"what's going on here?!"

"Never-mind this... Run!" Mahiru exclaimed as he hastily tried to make a run for it, but he was too slow as Kuro managed to grab hold of his arm. But even then, he continued running.

"Oi, Mahiru! Wait, wait, wait!" Kuro tried to hold him back but the brunette was too strong, even if he looked younger than him but that was to be expected; he was a vampire and he was a human.

They only stopped when they were in an alleyway to regain their breaths, and Mahiru cried out as he felt Kuro tighten his grip on him,"Wha... what the hell are you doing?! Let go of me!"

"No, what are you doing?! Why are you running?!" Kuro refuted as he used the same words the brunette used against him.

Mahiru stared at him as if he was the one being incredulous and ridiculous here,"You saw that crazy, maniacal and lunatic vampire too, right?! So you would understand what I'm feeling right now!"

"Yeah, I would understand. But not if you're a vampire too, you troublesome dumbass. You're a vampire, that guy's a vampire, I'm a human, but the one thing that sets us all apart is that you're the only one running away," Kuro hissed at him.

Mahiru's eyes became shadowed when he heard those words, and he averted his eyes,"I don't know any of those people. This has nothing to do with me..."

Kuro gritted his teeth as he grabbed Mahiru's collar and fisted at them,"Tsubaki is going to die! I don't want his weeping family coming to me, lamenting over the loss of their son!"

A few seconds ticked by as an uncomfortable silence reigned over the two pair, before it got broken by the vampire of the two himself.

"This sucks," Mahiru clicked his tongue in annoyance at him as he allowed Kuro's grip on his jacket to tighten.

He then casted a glare at the taller human, and with venom lacing his words, he slowly drawled out,"Do you really think you can play hero in this situation? Hm? Do you really think that it'll play out well for you? Like an easy level that you have to beat in an RPG game that will say 'victory!' once you've completed that level?"

"Well guess what," He answered as he forcefully tore Kuro's hands from his jacket with his vampiric strength, causing the latter to take a step back,"life isn't that easy. Trust me, I've tried playing hero a lot of times back then. Every single one of them failed and I was portrayed as the villain instead."

"Why do you think I've been alone for so long? It's because I don't want to have anyone depending on me. All I'll bring onto them is despair in the end. That's my sin, after all, if you didn't catch that magician's meaning," He added in viable information.

He continued, watching the bluenette's movement with careful precision,"Every single time I try to help someone, somebody else ends up wallowing in despair. It's a vicious cycle. And everybody will end up blaming me for it. I can't stand the guilt."

"No one's blaming you now if you help, Mahiru. I'm not going to. All of the blame would be pointed at that magician," Kuro tried to reassure and persuade him.

Mahiru shook his head,"You don't know that. The blame would just be pointed at someone else instead with another bullshit reason to support it."

"Why do you think the media is so fawned upon, even if everybody knows that not all of it are truths? It's because it adds information to their brains, even if it's false. Humans are curious in nature, but they're also naïve. They'll assume that whatever they read is true because 'oh! This is printed by some big-shot company! It's gotta be true!' " He mocked.

He glared at Kuro again,"So what makes you think all of the blame would be put on that vampire? Some of it may go to us. They'll say,'They should've waited for the police to arrive' or 'why couldn't you had just waited for help'. Get what I mean?"

"So it's better," he said as he placed a finger on Kuro's chest,"if you just run away. The people would understand your actions. That's just human nature; to run away from danger. How else has humanity survived this long? And they wouldn't even know that you were there. It's tempting, isn't it?"

He withdrew the finger away from Kuro's chest and instead offered a hand for him to take,"So run away with me. I'll help cover up for you. Forget this ever happened. Help will arrive shortly, so let's go."

Kuro's eyes widened as he digested the brunette's words closely.

That did sound tempting; to get away scotch free from such a traumatizing event and to not have any of the blame pinned on you. It sounded so good. So good that he couldn't help but feel his moral judgement tipping over to the bad side. That was how human nature was, right? To run away from danger. And this was a dire and dangerous situation, so like those people in the crowd, he could run away as well.

With his decision being blurred by the number of pros increasing and the cons decreasing, his hand was subconsciously reaching forward for Mahiru's own.

Yeah... that did sound good. Not having the blame pinned on you at all.

That sounded...

( "I'm not doing this because I want to feel like a hero or anything. I want to do this, to fight, because I want to. And I want to fight by your side." )

That sounded...

( "Kuro! I'll help you fight him! That's why we're partners, remember? I'll lift some of the burden off of your shoulders so that you wouldn't have to bear them alone! You're not alone, Kuro! Remember that with all your heart!" )

That sounded...

( "I need to do this. All my life, I've been protected by others, and now," a smile that outshone the sun grinned up at him, and that smile was infectious as he couldn't help but feel one forming on his face as well,"well, thinking simply, now it's my time to protect others." )

That sounded... wrong and selfish.

Kuro withdrew the hand that he was subconsciously reaching out, much to Mahiru's confusion, and a determined light shone in his eyes.

"Fine," Kuro growled as he turned away from the brunette,"run away by yourself then. But I know for sure, that by doing this, I at least tried to help someone in need, and that's all that matters."

"W-What?" Mahiru tried to called out,"Kuro, you have no idea what you're dragging yourself into—"

"Oh, I know what I'm dragging myself into. It's a pain and a troublesome thing, but," Kuro replied as he cut him off and he turned back to glance over at him from his shoulder.

He eyed him for a couple more seconds before saying the words he wanted to say.

"All my life, I've been protected by others. Well, thinking simply, now it's my time to protect others."

Mahiru's eyes widened as those words rung in his ears, and he was too shocked to notice Kuro leave and run straight for the dangerous vampire and his friend, too shocked to notice the world around him at that moment.

The words rung in his head over and over again, and one question seemed to fill his head whole.

Why did those words sound so familiar?

~{&}~

A pink-haired magician groaned as he sluggishly got up from the position he was in just now from being thrown, literally, and he slowly got out from the store through the shattered window that looked broken beyond repair.

He sighed as he ran a hand through his long pink hair and dusted the dirt off his clothes, and scanned the vicinity for any 'blue-haired NEET with a brown lynx', but to his dismay, he found none.

Though, he did find a raven bleeding out on the sidewalk.

"Ah, right. I almost forgot about you," He sighed again as he strutted over to the raven who was definitely still alive, if his groans of pain were any given evidence, and he towered over him.

He yawned as he stretched his limbs, feeling satisfied when he heard a 'pop' noise in his joints, and he let his limbs rest to their previous positions again and eyed the raven.

"Despair and that NEET got away. I guess they left you. I thought he was your friend so he'll at least try to save you. I guess he's not. And," He reluctantly mumbled out,"it seems that I've failed Sakkun today. And that's the worst thing that I could have ever done in a million years."

He sulked about that by himself before noticing the slight pool of blood that formed, and his eyes widened by just a little before they returned to an almost apologetic look,"Ah, it seems that I've gone overboard with this. It must hurt, huh? Well, Sakkun did instruct me to make things flashy..."

He sighed again as he decided to put his swords back in his hat slowly,"Sakkun is going to be so disappointed in me later on—"

Before he even got the chance to put them back in the hat, a pair of legs suddenly pounced on his shoulders as they locked themselves tight around his head and neck in a chokehold, and he suffocated slightly from the act.

"You damn troublesome asshole! Don't you dare touch him!" Kuro snarled as he tightened his grip he had with his legs on Pinky's head.

A rush of adrenaline overwhelmed both Kuro's and the magician's body at the same time, and the latter smirked in favor of skewering this guy,"What an outrageous act of courage! Shall I kill you now?!"

"Guys like you... really are the biggest pains in the asses." 

'I'm gonna fucking die!' Kuro cursed in his mind as he saw the magician reach for the sword and prepare to strike him; he was basically out in the open and defenseless, so it was really easy for him to get stabbed any moment now.

He shut his eyes tight as he waited for the excruciating pain to come, not having seen the puff of smoke that appeared behind him, but he did feel something push him off (or pull him off) from the man's shoulders and onto the ground. In a fraction of a second, he heard the sword slice through skin, undeniably excruciatingly painful, but the thing was...

...That wasn't him being stabbed. 

It was someone else who took the stab for him.

He cranked one of his eyes open, too scared and too mentally exhausted to face the truth, but both of his eyes sprang wide open as he took in the person who took the stab for him.

It was the same person who proposed running away from the scene, Mahiru.

"This guy is... such a pain in the ass that I could just die," Mahiru gritted out as he grabbed onto the sword that was protruding from his back tightly, and his hand bled from his skin being pierced by gripping it but he seemed to dismiss that fact.

"Oh... my!" The magician stammered out in shock and slight awe as he watched Mahiru remove the sword that was embedded into his body with pain, and he subconsciously jumped back when the brunette successfully did so and held his sword.

"Chill for a second, would you?" Mahiru sighed tiredly, seemingly done with everything,"yeah, I'm a vampire. I'm strong. Or, should be strong. You see, I haven't drank blood in so long. Hundreds of years, maybe... So for the most part, I'm just a shape-shifting lynx right now."

"Mahiru—"

"Get ready to run. You're just a human, so you can't do much. I'll take some more blows from this guy right here. I can heal fast, but you can't. You'll die in a second. I will at least be able to withstand a few more stabs before dying. Though, I'm not sure if I can do this alone..." He warned and mumbled the last part, but Kuro could still hear it.

Kuro's eyes widened.

Alone.

What a strange concept when it was surrounding him and this brunette right here.

( "Kuro! I'll help you fight him! That's why we're partners, remember? I'll lift some of the burden off of your shoulders so that you wouldn't have to bear them alone! You're not alone, Kuro! I'm here with you! Remember that!" )

'Not alone.'

'I'm here with you.'

That was right... he wasn't alone. Nobody in this world was. As long as somebody who was willing to help was standing right beside you or was out in the world, then you'll never be alone. 

And he was willing to help Mahiru defeat this maniac, so Mahiru wasn't alone.

Mahiru had him. He had Mahiru.

And that's all they ever needed.

Mahiru groaned as he prepared himself for some violence, and he was fighting a crazy vampire with a sword,"Well... a lynx is still a lynx, even if it's an immortal one. But since I'm stalling for time, it doesn't matter. Let's just try to brush this pain off and say something cool like 'smite me. It's fine. Schadenfreude is unpleasant anyways'—"

Kuro's determination flared and welled up in his body with his mind set on a decision, and his hand reached for Mahiru's arm and twirled him around.

The brunette widened his eyes as he was turned around by Kuro, and his mouth opened as he tried to voice out his question,"Wha—"

All they needed was each other, and he was content by that.

Blood spilled as Kuro forced the side of his arm into Mahiru's mouth, causing the latter to instinctively bite down on it and he had no choice but to gulp it down since it was literally stuck inside, and his eyes widened at the same time by the action.

"It's not a matter of being 'alone'," Kuro declared with a uncharacteristic determined tone in his usually monotone and deep voice,"it's a matter of having each other to defeat this vampire! Together of us, we can do something! Mahiru!"

Mahiru gulped down the delicious blood and licked it from dribbling by the corner of his mouth even as Kuro retracted his arm, and feeling defeated, he succumbed to his fate.

A bright and blinding light that seemed to blind anyone that was in the area at the moment burst into life, and Kuro had to shield his eyes with his bleeding arm to see what was going on.

His eyes widened when he saw a long and black chain that was glowing a brownish hue formed at the base of Mahiru's neck and attached itself to his wrist, and he heard Mahiru sigh.

"Guys like you... are really complicated and troublesome, aren't you all?" Mahiru grumbled as the light dissipated, and what was seen was a pair with dangerous gleams in their eyes with a chain floating in the air that started on his neck and ended on Kuro's wrist.

"But, oh well, you are my master now," He ended, and another light that was a bit dimmer formed around his hand.

Kuro noticed the light and saw it shifting forms into something longer at the end and became a sharp curve at the front, and when the light vanished, his eyes widened and he was blown away for the nth time of the day.

It was a black spear, and Mahiru was clutching tightly onto it as if he was familiar with it and trusted it a lot.

'His weapon?' Kuro questioned in his mind with slight shock,'it...it looks... it looks the same as 'before'...'

"This is a bother... you've made a contract," Pinky stammered our slowly with weariness, but he still tried to mask his fear off,"Ah but, heh. The true nature of that contract is known as..."

"Servant plus a vampire... A servant-vampire. Or otherwise known, a Servamp," He concluded as he connected the dots.

Mahiru smirked in return as his given bell rocked through the air with the wind.

"Nya."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make my day so if you have the time, please comment something below! :D


	7. Chapter 7

The new-Despair duo had a death-stare showdown with Pinky while the contract's chains shone in the air, but the Servamp of the three, Despair who was now named as Mahiru, conceded defeat as he turned away with a slouch of his shoulders, much to the confusion of the others.

"Forget this. I'm not going to participate. It would only make things much worse and complicated for me. And I like simple things so I'm not going to participate," Mahiru groaned as he stretched his limbs and started walking off, but got restrained when Kuro tugged on the chains and dragged him back to his original place.

"Give it up already, you can't run from this. I don't have a weapon, and you're the only one who can fight this guy. Now stop running. What a pain," Kuro growled as he pulled the brunette back, much to the latter's protests. Mahiru shook his head as he proudly declared to them,"I'm a man of peace! Violence is not the answer. I'd rather talk things out than fight it out with our fists."

"Of course you would. You're ‘him’ after all," Kuro mumbled beneath his breath, piquing the brunette's curiosity.

"What did you say?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, nothing," Kuro mumbled as he averted his gaze away, arousing Mahiru's suspicions and confusion but he decided that it was much simpler to just drop it off and left it at that. 

Tired of being ignored by them, Pinky decided that this would be the perfect timing to announce his presence and cleared his throat loudly, finally catching the rests' attention. He grinned in achieving his goal and he sang,"A Servamp, huh? How unfortunate! As long as you're chained to your master, you can forget about showing off your true power! How lame and boring! Not much of a vampire, huh? And you have to listen to a human out of all things!"

"Nah, thinking simply, it's not that bad," Mahiru responded as he pointed at Kuro with his spear,"as long as he doesn't blame anything on me and deal with each others' crap, it's fine. In fact, it may be for the best. I can literally get away scotch-free."

"What?" Kuro questioned as he turned to look at Mahiru with a questioning gaze, perplexed at the whole situation.

"Thinking simply, all I have to do is point at that guy and say 'he made me do it' and I can get away with anything. No blame, no judgement from others, no guilt, no responsibilities. It's a pretty sweet deal," Mahiru compromised with a smile, choosing to ignore the death glare that his new-Eve was giving him from behind.

"Hm, I guess that's true," Pinky agreed, also choosing to ignore the 'hey, don't agree and encourage him' from Kuro as well, and Mahiru and him stared at each other in recognition.

'What's this, mutual-vampire-connection?' Kuro sighed as he stared the both of them down in disappointment.

Pinky broke off the staring before a smirk returned on his face, causing uncertainty rumble up from the depths of Mahiru's heart,"You keep emphasising the 'no blame' part of the deal. Why, is it because of your sin? Is it because of the fact that if people blame you for something, with your sin adding on, your mask might break from the pain? Is that why you're okay with the contract? Because you're scared?"

Kuro stared at Mahiru, then at the magician, and he questioned with a worried voice,"Mahiru?"

Mahiru didn't reply to him for a few seconds before he turned to Kuro with a plastic smile on his face that anybody could see through,"Don't worry about what this guy's saying. It's all lies anyways."

Pinky seemed to relish in Mahiru's reaction to his words as he added salt to the wound,"Are you sure? Your smile is really fake right now, you know? Is your mind tormenting you until now? Of course it is. You're the embodiment of despair after all. Being in the constant state of absence of hope must definitely be mind-crushing—"

"Shut up, would you?" Mahiru hissed as his glare deepened and his jacket's tails started to act up, silencing the magician immediately.

Kuro seemed to notice the severity of the situation and how unwilling Mahiru was to deal with the magician's piercing words any longer, and he instantly knew he had to change the topic, lest he wanted Mahiru to go on a killing spree, which he looked like he was about to soon. He copied the magician's actions earlier and cleared his throat to catch their attention, and with their attention on him, he pointed at Pinky and question,"Hey, you. I know you're a subclass. I know subclasses come from Servamps. Which Servamp did you come from?"

Mahiru stared at him in awe, momentarily forgetting that the bluenette was actually just a teen, and Pinky smirked in response to his question.

"Oho? You're a smart and sharp human, I see. You know how vampires work, hm? Well, that saves me the trouble of explaining everything from scratch. Anyways, you want to know who obey, huh?" Pinky questioned, and with their glares, he took that as a yes,"then I shall tell you!"

They sucked in a breath as they waited for the answer in anticipation.

"The Servamp I obey is Sakuya. And Sakuya hates you."

Almost immediately at the mention of that name, the area's temperature that surrounded dropped tremendously, and a cold shiver ran through their skin, sending goosebumps along the way to the Despair duo.

...Sakuya, huh?

"So, here's the final question!" Pinky chimed in, breaking the silence as he pulled out swords from his hat with a smirk,"why does Sakuya hate you?"

"Honestly... I think I know where this is going already, and it's not to do with the fact that so many Josei, Seinen or Shounen manga have this 'I hate you because you did this to someone I cherish deeply' kind of thing," Mahiru grumbled lowly, causing Kuro to quirk an eyebrow at his response to Pinky's reveal.

Did he know from the start?

"And that is?" Kuro questioned him, and he sighed as he turned his gaze towards him. He lowered his gaze a bit with a solemn look in his eyes, breaking Kuro's heart as he saw his eyes hold self-hatred and despair in them,"It's... it's kind of a personal thing I share with the other Servamps. It's nothing you should concern yourself in about."

"Hm...If you say so," Kuro stared at Mahiru with suspicion laced in his humming, causing him to flinch as he sensed the uncertainty in his Eve's voice and how much he didn't trust him.

It hurt so badly, even worse than the pain Pinky inflicted on him when he impaled him, because this was emotional trauma and his soul was already, very so, corrupted and broken. He sighed as he bottled the pain up once again in his heart; it was okay, he was used to this by now. Used to the discrimination and the pain. People didn't trust him, and he got that. He sympathised with them. He understood them. 

After all, who would want to trust a vampire who's only intention was to bring despair unto others? 

"Stop ignoring me! I am clearly much more interesting between the two of you and my outfit is clearly glamorous so I need the attention more than you all!" Pinky pouted in irritation, and Mahiru pretended to clog his ears shut.

"So noisy... can't you just think simply for once and notice that you're causing a ruckus? How complicated and troublesome..."

"HEY! Don't you dare speak to me that way! Sakkun is gonna get mad if he finds out what you said!" Pinky glared at them both, making the latter sigh in exhaustion, tired from this man's bullshit.

Pinky huffed in irritation, infuriating Mahiru even more because how could he act like he was tired and angry when he's clearly the one disturbing them, and the Servamp merely shook his head,"Then? You said something about why Sakuya hates me, right? It doesn't really make much of a difference. Everybody hates me. What makes him so special?"

The magician stared at him as if he grew a second head, and he asked,"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Wait, I'm the cat here... never-mind, ignore what I just said..."

"You... why are you talking about Sakkun as if you know him? You don't know him at all and that infuriates me so much! Stop acting like you know him! Nobody knows him and even that is irritating! So stop trying to act as if you do!" Pinky yelled their ear off, but once Kuro registered the former's words, it actually did make sense a bit.

Mahiru didn't say 'the Sakuya', something that people would say if they didn't know somebody. He said 'Sakuya' with such ease and faith in himself as if he knew Sakuya from the start. It rolled off his tongue so well like he knew it from the back of his mind and hand.

Something...something wasn't adding up here.

Mahiru stayed quiet for a few seconds, before speaking up,"Yeah, I don't know him. And I've never heard of a Servamp named 'Sakuya' before. Who the hell is he? This is so complicated..."

"Then why did you say his name as if you knew him?!"

"You just said his name just now so, thinking simply, I addressed this so-called 'Sakuya' by his name! What's so wrong about that?! Explain it to me in a simple way!" Mahiru started to retort with an angered gaze as he and Pinky had a sort of a glare-showdown.

Kuro lifted a finger to his chin as he tried to compute it inside of his head. Yeah, Mahiru had his point of calling Sakuya by his name due to the fact that Pinky said it, and that was looking at the situation from the naked eye and simply skimming through the contents without looking deeper. But if he was to investigate further, there would be some parts that didn't add up and some points actually, dare he say it, went to Pinky's side. 

Why did Mahiru sound so casual saying his name as if he was just a mere friend? A normal person would be perplexed at the mention of a stranger's name being addressed to them and they would say 'the Sakuya' so as to not to refer the name to anyone they would know because, well, they didn't know anybody who went by that name. They would be cautious of using that name to refer to anybody.

So why... why did he sound so casual?

Tch, thinking too deeply about this was a pain and too troublesome for him to do.

"Forget it, this argument's getting nowhere. Now tell us, why does this 'Sakuya', if you don't like me casually calling him like a friend, hate me so much? What did I do to him?" Mahiru smartly cut the argument off, and Pinky smirked in return as he tightened the grip he had on his swords.

"Why? Well... the answer will be revealed to you in thirty seconds after you've been skewered alive!" Pinky bellowed as he went forward to strike Kuro, and for a second, fear flashed through Mahiru's ruby eyes and he saw red.

No way in Hell was he going to allow Kuro to get hurt.

He tugged on the chains that connected them both and pulled on them with enough force so that Kuro was sent flying in the air towards him, and he allowed some distance to appear as he jumped behind as well, his feet landing on a store's walls. He safely caught the bluenette in his arms, one of them holding his spear and the other holding him, and he questioned with a voice full of concern,"Hey, you alright?"

Kuro stared at him in slight shock as he was levelled down to the floor, his back hitting the cold surface and saw the worry evident in the other's eyes and almost smiled at it had it not been for the severity of the situation. Instead, he sighed without ill intentions in response as he replied,"You could've warned me about it...I don't like to suddenly be tossed in the air like an object, okay? What a pain...thank you, though."

Mahiru huffed,"You don't get to complain! I saved you! What if you were stabbed by this maniac? You would've died and I don't want that! Think of your own safety for once! Geez, what a complicated person you are!”

"Oh? So my death affects you that much?" Kuro smirked as he saw the brunette's cheeks start to grow pink, and the latter shook his head as he averted his gaze away.

"I-It's...don't get the wrong idea! I don't like having the blame pinned on me! And moreover, you said that you had siblings. I know how the feeling of losing a loved one feels like and I don't want them to experience that pain!" Mahiru tried to put on a mask to shield his embarrassment. Kuro almost reached forward to ruffle the latter's hair when Pinky chimed in again,"What are you two love-birds doing? Why do you keep getting distracted in a battle?! Focus on your enemy, which is me! I am your enemy!"

"He seriously likes being the center of attention, huh?" Mahiru sighed before his gaze turned serious,"I've had enough of this. Kuro, tell me what we should do."

"Me?"

"Of course! You're my Eve now after all! So everything I do is reflected on you! Whatever happens now isn't my fault," Mahiru scowled tiredly at him, and he sighed again. Then, he turned his gaze towards the magician with a glare as he outstretched his hand and pointed at him, commanding Mahiru:

"Mahiru, take him down."

Mahiru stared at him for two seconds before feeling the contract's will course through his soul and his veins, urging him to do what his master has commanded, and gave in to it as his grip on his spear subconsciously tightened,"What kind of command is that? You read too much shounen manga..."

He ignored the comment from Kuro that was something along the lines of 'hey, what did you say?', and he opted to focus at the task of hand,"Ah but, whatever. You are my master so of course, I cannot disobey you."

He grabbed his spear and sliced the air with it, sending surrounding gusts of air flying, forcing Kuro and Pinky to shield their eyes from it.

"Didn't I tell you...?" Mahiru growled out lowly in a menacing voice, and his ruby red eyes gleamed out through the shadows of his bangs.

"Whatever happens from now on... isn't my fault."

In a spilt second, faster than anyone could comprehend on what was going on, Mahiru was immediately by Pinky's side with spear now being bloodied; and Kuro had to blink for his sight to focus on the situation at hand.

Once his sight stabilised, his eyes widened at the sight before him:

Mahiru was holding his now bloodied spear and blood was gushing out everywhere from the magician as Mahiru had torn and sliced his bones and the side of his body through like paper, displaying his overwhelming strength and speed of being a vampire, and his hood dropped from his head due to the wind currents. 

Kuro found himself without a voice as his mouth gasped open and he barely noticed the splatters of blood from the magician that stained his cheek, the said magician dropping on the floor. Pinky also seemed to be in a state of shock as his eyes were wide and barely any comprehensible words erupted from his mouth, all noises merely being muffled cries and jerks his body made.

Kuro was about to stand up but before he could do such thing, Mahiru walked over to Pinky and lifted him up by dragging his long pink hair up, regardless of his injuries. Mahiru glared at him in disgust as his fangs protruded from his mouth, and Kuro widened his eyes for the nth time at the action soon to be done.

He tried to distract the brunette away from his bloodlust,"M-Mahiru...Mahiru! T-that's enough, he can't even move—"

His rambling was cut off when Mahiru shot a glare at Kuro that basically told him 'this is the monster you contracted yourself to', and Mahiru brought his fangs closer to the magician, or subclass's, neck. Kuro had wanted to solve this diplomatically and peacefully, but the subclass had pushed him to his edge into commanding Mahiru to take him down, and Mahiru's bloodlust is demanding him to kill the subclass in front of him right now.

Mahiru's eyes were dull as he stared at the pained creature before him with indifference to that of trash or scums.

'Why not rid of them? You would be doing society a favour by ridding things that cause them despair. It's a good and heroic thing to do, right? Then maybe you can atone for your sins,' his demon taunted in his ears.

He opened his mouth as his fangs hovered over the subclass's arteries, but just before he was about to strike and sink deep, he was yanked away by a force that came from his neck as if he was a baby cat being dragged away by the scruff of his neck by it's own cat-mother.

"Oi, that's enough! Stop! You don't want to do this and I'm sure of that! Your instincts are just screaming at you to kill him but you don't want to, right? Then take control of your bloodlust and stop!" Kuro advised as he pulled on the contract's chains, but Mahiru seemed to not hear him at all. 

In fact, he was resisting the force as he dragged himself back to the subclass's neck as if he was possessed, and Kuro had enough of it.

"Mahiru! You said that I'm responsible for everything that you do, right? So listen to what I say!" Kuro yelled with a strained expression, and once hearing that, Mahiru instantaneously dropped Pinky's body to the ground and did not resist anymore.

They were breathing heavily and a thousand pounds were suddenly on their chests which made it hard to breathe, more so for the brunette. Mahiru stayed in that position for a couple of seconds before turning around, but once he did, the expression on his face broke Kuro's heart.

Mahiru's wide and open eyes were full of confusion, shock, regret and self-hatred, no longer dull and full of bloodlust, and one of his eyes already shedding tears and the next one about to any moment now; furthermore, his lips were trembling, as if afraid of a monster that appeared in front of him.

"Just now... W-What... What did I just do...?" Mahiru's trembling voice that seemed so afraid resounded out, and subconsciously, Kuro walked over while biting his lip as well.

He pulled the brunette in for a warm and consoling hug, feeling tears dampen his school uniform but he could care less about that; all that mattered now was telling Mahiru that he wasn't at fault.

"D-Did I... mess up and bring despair upon others again? Hey, a-answer me. Did I?" Mahiru looked up to meet Kuro's eyes, and when he didn't get an answer immediately, his eyes darkened,"I did, didn't I? I caused others harm again."

"Mahiru, that's not—"

"That's not what, Kuro?! I caused others harm and pain again! All I do is bring agony upon those who get close to me! This is why I stayed away from anybody! And this is why you should have never offered me your blood!" Mahiru fisted at his shirt with a death grip. The Servamp started bawling his eyes out into his shirt, and his hands trembled as he wondered on how to help and console the person in front of him,"I'll inevitably hurt you in the future, and I don't want that!"

However, two sentences from the brunette sent his mind into haywire,"Break the contract with me right now so that you won't get hurt like the others I've been close to as well, Kuro! You still have time to take back everything and not get hurt!"

Kuro's mind stopped and his eyes saw red.

'Break the contract with me.'

He didn't know what else to say at this point; his mind was in a complete and utter mess, and his mouth started to spit out words before he even knew that he was doing that.

He grabbed onto Mahiru's shoulders with tight yet careful hands, and he growled,"Don't you dare ever think that I would think of breaking the contract with you. I will never, ever do that, or even think about doing it. I know that it was a reckless idea to do it, but I will not regret doing it ever in my life. This, I'm certain of.” He hissed at him.

“So, would you stop looking down on yourself? I'd never regret making the contract with you. Stop blaming yourself for everything. I told you, you can pin the blame on me since I am in charge of you. I'll take responsibility for your actions. So stop blaming yourself," Even with the firmness of his voice, his hands were shaking slightly due to the fear of Mahiru cancelling the contract with him. He didn’t want that. He dreaded that so much, for reasons unspecified.

His words must've taken a toll on the brunette as Mahiru’s eyes began to tear up more, much to his wariness, but that was for naught as Mahiru’s eyes cleared up of those negative emotions they had before, and if he squinted closely, he saw a tiny ray of hope shine and flicker in his eyes like a small flame.

He couldn't see any more of it though as Mahiru buried his face in his shirt again and mumbled,"You truly are a complicated person..."

A heavy weight was lifted off both their chests figuratively (not so much on the literal part for Kuro as Mahiru was still on his chest himself), and the human of the two threaded his fingers through the other's hair as a way to console him.

They only met this morning, but it felt like they met centuries ago.

Their nice and comfortable(?) moment was cut off when Pinky clicked his tongue in pain and annoyance, and they both turned to look at him scowling at them. He hissed out,"Damn it... damn it! You are damned! All of you are damned! Damned, all damned! Contestants, do you not know where the train is headed?!"

"You're heading towards a super fun vampire parade in Hell! But you're stuck on a runaway train to your nightmare, and you can never escape! Such is your fate, contestants of my show!" Pinky snarled out with an eerie and maniacal smirk, before he tipped his hat down,"sorry folks! That's all for today's show! Now I bid you goodbye!"

A puff of smoke appeared, forcing Mahiru and Kuro to back off and swish their hand around to clear the smoke that was coming towards them and had to force out coughs to clear their throats. Once the smoke cleared, a perplexed expression overtook their faces.

The magician was no longer... human-sized, perhaps?

He was the size of a doll now. He looked like one, even with those beady eyes -one being a star and he other being a circle- that looked like they were stitched on (probably were) and his mouth was stitched up as well, and his body looked like it was made from cloth.

"What the..." Mahiru muttered underneath his breath as Kuro calmly went to pick him up, and he analysed his form. He turned back to his Servamp and announced,"This guy's still not dead. He's in a doll form or whatever this is."

"Of course I'm not dead! I'm a vampire, you idiot— Gyaaaaaaaaah!" Pinky suddenly piped up, much to the rests' shock, but was cut off from his insults when Mahiru stabbed his spear through his hat, lifting him from Kuro's hands.

"Shut up, would you? You're too loud and squeaky," Mahiru grumbled as he started to shake his spear, inevitably causing Pinky's form to shake as well, much to the latter's protests. This exchange continued for awhile, along with Pinky's cries 'stop shaking me! Agh, stop it!', and Kuro eyed the subclass -or doll- and realised he hasn't answered Mahiru's question yet.

The question of why Sakuya hated Mahiru.

"Oi, commercial break's over. You've lost. Now," Kuro called out, bringing both vampires' attention towards him,"answer Mahiru's question. Why does this 'Sakuya' hate him?"

"You're seriously asking that question? What a fool you are! Don't you know why Sakuya hates you? Isn't failing the quiz enough of an answer?" Pinky taunted then with an eerie smirk on his doll face that didn't suit his features at all.

Mahiru sighed tiredly, wanting to just go anywhere but here,"I don't know any 'Sakuya'... or, I used to know one anyways, but he's gone. Forever. This Sakuya you're talking of though... who is he?"

Both Pinky and Kuro turned to look at him with suspicious gazes, and he, dumbfounded, asked,"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You... you knew a Sakuya before?" Kuro questioned warily, and once hearing his words, Mahiru widened his eyes a bit, realising that he might've said too much by accident.

He turned his gaze away and mumbled,"I... forget what I just said. I don't know any Sakuya. It's... it's just something personal that I share with the other Servamps back then. You don't need to meddle yourselves in it."

Kuro honestly wanted to press on for more details because the brunette was being way too cryptic about things, and hearing him say that he knew a 'Sakuya' before made things hella suspicious. And what did he even mean by 'back then'? How 'back' is 'back then'? What happened? Who is this so-called Sakuya that Mahiru knew of before?

Too many questions, too little answers.

"Maybe the Sakuya you knew had the same name as my precious Sakkun. I know for sure that you don't know my Sakkun though," Pinky reaffirmed Mahiru's statement, to which the latter nodded.

"I don't know any Sakuya," Mahiru replied, and doll-like Pinky smirked with his little stitched mouth that looked like it came from a horror movie.

Doll-Pinky huffed as he continued,"Right. You don't 'know' my Sakuya. Poor, poor Sakkun. No one knows him. No one. Not even his siblings or the very big brother he looked up to in the past. Always hiding behind a liar-mask to hide himself. And that's why he wants to kill everyone.” Pinky laughed with his squeaky and irritating voice, sending shivers down Mahiru's and Kuro's spine,"His siblings, humans, society, even the world! Anyone who doesn't know him is done for!"

Mahiru glanced at Pinky and then to Kuro and analysed him from head to toe. He bit his lip while being mindful of his fangs, and his grip on his spear subconsciously tightened again, a habit he has made when feeling anxious or threatened; his spear was kind of a reassurance of his that told him he has something to fight with. Unwanted images started to flash through his eyes and he shook his head, feeling a sense of déjà vu in his soul. This scenario... it felt familiar.

Kuro noticed Mahiru's apparent distress from the corners of his eyes, immediately feeling a protective instinct wash over his form as he reached out to touch his shoulder as a form of consolation. Once contact has been made, Mahiru widened his eyes as he flinched back hard from Kuro's grasp and backed away, but instantly regretted it when he saw shock and a look of pain that flashed through the latter's eyes.

The brunette fumbled for cohesive words and tried to apologise,"I— I'm sorry, I just... I thought... sorry. I told you I wasn't really big on the 'skin-contact' thing or people touching me out of the blue. It was just my instincts from being alone for a long time. I'm sorry if I offended you... I'm not used to it."

A look of understanding took over Kuro's ruby red eyes as he nodded,"I see... I'm sorry as well. I'll take note of that from now on."

"Eh? Ah, it's fine! It's fine, you don't need to apologise. I'm the one who should be saying sorry for being so rude," Mahiru chuckled sheepishly as he subconsciously pinned the blame on himself, something that he was also used to doing.

Kuro narrowed his eyes as he tried to change the brunette's mindset,"No, I—"

"Anyways," Mahiru intercepted, clearly contempt with just dropping the uncomfortable subject and looked at Pinky's doll-form,"if I say I don't know this 'Sakuya' you're talking about, then I don't know him. As simple as that. Stop trying to force me to acknowledge him or whatever."

Before Pinky could refute and protest or whine about something, the contract's chain abruptly flashed and disappeared into thin air, as well as Mahiru's spear which caused Pinky to come crashing down onto the floor. A gust of wind or a force pushed Kuro onto the ground with a painful thud, and he groaned in pain. He slowly got up on his two feet and whispered to himself,"The chains are gone...Well, that's to be expected anyways... It usually disappears after a certain time period."

He glanced to his own Servamp and realised he was on the floor; he instantly felt concern wash over him as he rushed over, not caring for the doll that was on the ground and asked,"Hey, hey. Mahiru. Mahiru, you okay? Say something."

"Agh... I did not expect that to happen... Sorry, I've never had an Eve in centuries so I'm pretty new to this," Mahiru grunted softly as he careful sat up and sent a sheepish smile towards the human, and the latter just smiled softly.

Kuro sighed deeply as he continued,"Alright, then let's just deal with the afterma..."

Sleepiness tugged on his eyes as he felt himself waft off, not hearing his Servamp's cries of 'hey, Kuro! Kuro! Are you okay?!', and his consciousness was slipping through his fingers.

'Ah, this is such a pain,' He caught himself thinking as he allowed the darkness to consume him whole, not even resisting to the temptation and not even feeling his back get caught by gentle hands before they could hit the hard floor.

~{&}~

A pair consisting of a blonde and a purple-haired boy arrived to the plaza, curious by the screams of the people that ran the opposite direction from the location, and the purple-haired boy's eyes widened at the sight of another pair. It consisted of a brunette and a bluenette that were huddled together, but his eyes weren't focused on the bluenette; they were focused on the brunette.

He gritted his teeth at the sight of him,"So this is where you've been, huh, Despair? Out in the open where you could easily harm others as well? Ah, wait, you've already harmed someone, that bluenette over there. You've truly not learnt your lesson, huh? Guess I have to clean after you agai—"

His sentence was cut off by his shock when he saw the brunette hold the bluenette close to his body with a worried and panicky expression (an expression he thought he would never make) and he shifted the human on his back while holding his legs up in a piggyback position. He watched with his own eyes as Despair got up and walked over to pick up a doll as well, and spared a glance that was full of concern for the human on his back and took off, jumping onto the roof of a building with his vampiric strength and continued to make his way somewhere.

The purplenette's voice was caught in his own throat, and when the blonde noticed this, he chuckled.

"Did his actions surprise you?" The blonde questioned with a knowing smile; the answer to that question was already obvious by the baffled expression the purplenette gave.

"...Yes. Not in a million years would I have imagined that he would have an expression like that ever again. Did he...change?" The purplenette, who was the shorter of the two, spoke with an awed voice that held hints of hope in them.

The blonde smiled again and shrugged,"Maybe so. Aren't you happy for him?"

The shorty seemed to regain his composure again before clearing his throat and crossed his arms,"I-It's been decades or centuries. Of course he must've changed. Time does wonders to people. Though, the question is how much did he change..."

The blonde hummed in response, agreeing with his question and eyed the surroundings, before noticing a raven collapsed and bleeding on the sidewalk and widened his eyes. He immediately called out to warn his partner of the civilian,"Misono, someone's injured—"

However, it seemed that it was not necessary as the raven got up by himself, groaning in pain and stretched his limbs while scanning his surroundings and when no one else was seen in the vicinity, his shoulders slumped. This confused the pair as they stared at the raven's actions; why was he acting so casual? A normal human would've been panicking by this point. Additionally, he was bleeding out a second ago, so how...

Their trains of thoughts were stopped when the raven, with inhumane strength and speed, jumped onto the roof a building and ran into the direction of (supposedly) his own home.

The pairs' eyes darkened at the realisation of it.

"A subclass, huh... Does Despair know of this?" Misono questioned out loud, and the blonde's dark thoughts seemed to get the better of him.

Misono seemed to sense his partner's distress as he slapped his arm lightly, and when the blonde turned to him, he hissed,"Stop thinking so deeply, Lily! I can basically hear your thoughts from the contract itself! Calm yourself down."

Lily, after hearing his words, erupted into laughter and immediately calmed down,"Ahaha! Sorry, I must've worried you. I'm fine. Though, I wonder if Despair and him would be..."

Misono seemed to understand his frustration and sighed,"This is going to cause a lot of trouble, I can just feel it. I don't even need to use my spells to know. Agh, whatever. I'm tired. Let's go home. I'll get in touch with Despair now that I know he is here in Japan. I always find a way how to. But for now, let me rest. Let's go, Lily."

Lily nodded as they both hopped off the building with the aid of Misono's spells, and they skidded off back to their mansion with the help of an escape-car that was parked. Before getting in the car, Misono demanded of Lily,"Lily, get me info on that guy Despair was carrying by tomorrow. I'll get my subclasses to fetch them for me soon."

Lily smiled again. 

"Of course. Anything for you, my dear Misono."


	8. Chapter 8

Kuro's world was in infinite darkness, where he could see and touch nothing. Yet, he could still feel his own body floating through the abyss like an empty vessel, and that perplexed him but he decided to let it be.

'Where am I?' He questioned himself using his inner voice, deeming it a hassle to even attempt to try and voice his thoughts out completely due to the fact that nobody would even hear him.

"Thee who lies in the darkness, prowling the undetermined and dangerous abyss, thee who has lost his reason, thee who pitifully searches for his meaning of life who was taken from his grasps long, long ago but to no avail... you have awakened, I see."

"What?" Kuro asked while tossing his head around, using his outer voice now, and he searched for the source of the voice that sounded familiar to his ears.

"You need not look for me for I do not have a conscious body. I am merely an entity— or rather, a first Draft of a script that was scrapped and forgotten, replaced by a newer script that is still continuously writing itself on and on, whereas mine has ended long ago. I do not need to exist, yet I do."

"I don't get what you're saying at all... What a pain," Kuro grumbled as he tried to piece the so-called 'Draft's words together one by one and trying to decipher the meaning out, but to no avail.

"It's okay if you don't get my words. You'll get them with time. However, the fact that my only reason of existence is pretty... dumbfounded, for the lack of a better word, is worrisome and complicated."

Kuro's eyes were narrowed when he registered Draft's voice in,"What? I'm your only reason of existence? What does that even mean? Don't put the burden on my shoulders..." 

Draft chuckled at his response,"You truly are the embodiment of Kuro, aren't you, even if you're not entirely him? You two are the same, yet so different at the same time. But the fact that you talk alike... It's amusing."

In an instant, Kuro's eyes sprang wide open and his body was sending him alarm bells to get away from the void he was in, to get away from the danger he was in.

With a feeble voice, he croaked out,"W...what..? What are you saying...? Get me out of here right now! Who's this 'other Kuro'? Who's the other me?!"

Draft seemed taken aback by his outburst as he replied awe-struck,"Y-You... why...? Please, do pray and tell, why is it that even if nobody else is in the vicinity at the moment, you still continue to lie? You know the answer to your question yet you deny it."

"I-I don't—"

"And, you aren't the only person who knows who they have replaced. In fact, some people know, and one of them, excluding us-scrapped-and-forgotten Drafts, know the reason why. So, why do you act like an innocent lamb when really, you're a wolf in sheep's clothing?" Draft questioned him and his words stabbed through his heart and ears like sharpened knives.

However, some of Draft's words stuck with him and they made him question everything,"Wait, some people know 'who they have replaced', and one of them knows the reason why? Who's the some-people, and who is the special... one?"

Draft scoffed at him,"Still acting, I see. You know who most of the people who know are. Though, I would understand if you don't know who the special one is. In fact, nobody else knows who the special one is. He's done a good job hiding his knowledge, huh?"

Kuro gritted his teeth in irritation,"Just tell me already!"

"How scary. Though, if I told you, the whole play would end here, would it not? You would do something reckless if you knew and the script would stop," Draft sighed tiredly.

"Okay, cut the bullshit. You've been talking about a 'script' the whole time. What does that even mean?What 'script'?" Kuro finally asked, but he could almost imagine Draft shaking his head at that.

"You are so unbelievably pure and charmingly stupid. It's fine, you need not know. All you need to do is continue acting the play out."

"Huh? A 'play'? What 'play'?" Kuro questioned again, but Draft merely ignored him.

"I've been waiting for eons for a new twist to happen to the script and now that something is finally going on, I don't want the end credits to roll just yet with the cast thanking me for watching it. So, continue acting your role and you will be fine," Draft replies, piquing Kuro's suspicions.

Silence ensued, before Draft decided to hum a tune, but his humming soon turned into full-lyrics.

Draft started to sing a song, a song that sounded nostalgic to Kuro's ears,"We can do it! If it's you and me, definitely. We can change "something" . Even "someone"~."

"Breakin' out~! Our fate connected by chains. Crosses, sways and releases light~," Draft continued to sing, and subconsciously, Kuro hummed along to the luring song.

"We're a contrasting pair. But here, we meet. It's the Crossing World~," Kuro and Draft sang the last part of the chorus together as if it was only natural to do so, as if the song was etched deeply into their hearts and that it was a song that connected their hearts together.

It took Kuro a few moments to realize what he has done, and by the time he did, Draft had cut in and applauded,"That wasn't too bad! You're quite a singer yourself, I must say! A shame that you're too much of a NEET to pursue your talents and interests though."

Kuro's voice was caught in his throat as he stammered out,"T-That song... how did you know about it?"

Draft chuckled, as if amused by his question,"You're asking me that? You should ask yourself that! How did you know the lyrics to my son—"

He was rudely cut off when light poured through the darkness, startling the abyss as rumbles rang throughout the vicinity, and Kuro's body jerked around with the 'earthquakes' as he'd like to simply put it.

Kuro could hear Draft sigh audibly in defeat,"It seems that it is time for you to wake up in your own world. What a shame."

Immediately, Kuro's panic returned,"But, you haven't answered most of my questions yet—"

"Do not fret. We'll definitely meet in the future anyways, it is our fate. As long as you continue to seek for your reason, I shall always be near you. After all, isn't your will of finding your reason the only explanation as to why you're here when you're not supposed to be?" Draft challenged him with a cunning tone, and he had to bite down any remarks as his vision blurred, allowing the light to envelop him.

"Wait—!"

However, one last farewell from Draft sent Kuro's senses into overdrive as his eyes shot wide open from the voice:

"Farewell, Sleepy Ash. I hope that by the time we meet again, you have at last grabbed ahold of your partner who was torn away from your grasps in the past. But I warn you, it's hard to save people who don't want to be saved. Now, goodbye and may the script of the world decide your fate."

The light consumed him whole before his words could be voiced out.

~{&}~

Light seeped through the cracks of the blinds and illuminated a bluenette's face, stirring the said person from his deep slumber as he groaned and cracked one of his crimson eyes open.

He grumbled as he brought both hands to his face to sap the sleepiness out of his body, but as if a switch was flipped in him, he jolted out of his lying-position into an upright one on his bed while gasping for air, sweat rolling down his face.

He was so ghastly pale and haggard that it made him look like a frightful and disheveled mouse that had to run away from it's predators.

Memories of what had happened the night before flashed through his minds, and his voice was caught in his throat.

"A fleeting dream?" He pondered out loud as he dragged a hand across his face, making it a point to focus more on massaging his temples due to the premonition that a migraine and lightheadedness was due in a bit because of jolting up straight so quickly.

He reflected back on his so-called 'dream', which were the flashbacks, and his eyes widened.

"Mahiru... Was it just a dream or did I really make a contract with him?" He questioned, but he shook his head,"no, no, no. That can't be... I promised them that I wouldn't tamper with anything that could affect the future during my stay here. Unless, they already did something, but I don't know much."

"But, shit, if I really did make a contract with him... Agh, my self-control is super low, isn't it?" He cursed himself. He groaned as he buried his face into his hands, asking himself on why he couldn't have just stayed put, stayed normal for God's sakes. 

But did he really want to stay put and let life stroll by with the ticks of time?

Did he really want to stay normal? Did he really want to miss out on an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the person that he has looked so far and wide for, even if that person wasn't the same? 

Did he really want to?

No. The answer was no.

So, in conclusion, his selfishness would've persuaded him to take the risk and plunge himself into chaos and madness, all for the sake of meeting him.

God damn it, his self control really was at an all-time low. But could you blame him if the person you longed for so long was right there, and you had a choice of whether being with him, or to just stay normal and ignore everything? 

The sheer obviousness of the answer to that question seemed blatantly odious and revolting to him.

He grumbled as he cursed his own abysmal self, wondering what went wrong in the first place but abruptly, flashes of the conversation he had with that voice pierced through his ears.

He bemoaned at the words that were cutting in his sense of reality, and the only thing that was running in his mind at the moment was the conversation he had and the darkness he was momentarily in a while ago.

He stared at his hands with wide eyes as he reflected on it, his mouth syncing with some of the words that rang in his head,"It's hard to save people who don't want to be saved..."

'It's hard to save people who don't want to be saved'. What did that even mean? Why did that voice, whom he nicknamed Draft, mean by those words? Who didn't want to be saved? And why?

Moreover, who was Draft even? 

And how did he know of that accursed, sickening and sinister name, Sleepy Ash?

He needed to talk to him soon and quickly. He needed answers. The conversation they had left him with more questions than answers and it disoriented him to such a degree that he felt like scratching his skull and brain out.

Before he could lament his current predicament any further however, he heard the door creak open and he peaked an eye at the intruder.

It was Mahiru, holding a cup of water and a plate of freshly-cooked breakfast.

Mahiru quirked an eyebrow at his disheveled form, sharp eyes scanning and analyzing him before they softened and he moved to gently put the plate and cup down on the bed in front of him, leaving a gap so that he could sit down himself.

He proceeded to sit closely beside him, eyes not once taking their focus off the human, and softly, he asked,"Hey, you alright? You look a little distressed. Had a nightmare?"

Kuro shook his head as he averted his gaze away,"No, it's not really a nightmare, it's..."

He spared a glance towards the affectionate brunette who seemed to have naught but worry for him, and he decided to not tell him about the conversation with Draft because it would merely escalate things, and he replied,"It's... I'm just thinking of what happened last night. So many things took place, and it's hard to wrap my head around it..."

Mahiru's eyes softened even more as he stared at him while biting his lip, as if he was hesitating to do an action that he wanted to do.

But looking at the bluenette's distressed expression... there was no way he could avoid trying to console him in any means possible; his conscience would nag at him later on.

He conceded defeat, deciding that there was no harm in doing this; he took the surprised human in for a hug and drew circles on his back, soothing him,"It's going to be fine. I know that there's much to take in, especially me having to be near you for all eternity now, but you'll get the hang of it. We'll do it together, okay?"

Kuro embraced the smaller male as well as he allowed himself to sniff in his scent, and he nodded,"Yeah, we will."

Mahiru chuckled softly,"It's... this kind of thing, it's weird and feels so foreign to me."

"What 'thing'?"

"The 'comforting other people' thing. I've not done that for such a long time, and I'm usually the one who needs the comfort. But now, it feels... nice to comfort other people. I've forgotten the feeing of it," He hummed softly, and Kuro stilled.

That humming... it sounded familiar to Draft's humming.

Mahiru continued his talk,"And, I don't know why, but I feel... safe, in your embrace. I'm usually not one for physical contact, but with you, I feel fine. Is it something that the contract offers? To feel safe in your Eve's arms because you're both connected mentally by a chain? But it feels like this is a natural thing to do, to be in your arms."

"It feels as if we've done this a million times, and it feels as if I've known you from long, long ago. It's funny to think that we just met each other yesterday. Even with the other Servamps, I don't feel as safe with them as I do with you," He giggled.

This tugged on Kuro's heartstrings as he averted his gaze away with a slight tint of pink staining his cheeks, but he couldn't hide the smile that started to form on his face.

Feeling wanted and being told that you gave someone the feeling of protection, it made his chest feel warm and he felt euphoria at it.

Huh. Yeah, he'd have to agree with Mahiru there. It was funny to think that they just met yesterday and they were typically strangers to each other right now. But they felt safe in each other's arms, and that was all that mattered at that point in time.

Kuro sighed as he went to perch his chin atop Mahiru's soft and fluffy auburn hair, and his eyes widened when he caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall, but they slowly reverted back to their respective sizes.

He thought he was late to school, but he wasn't. No, not really. He still had forty-five minutes left until the school bell would ring, meaning that he still had time to stay in this position a bit longer and to potentially eat that delicious-looking breakfast hat the brunette had cooked that morning.

Speaking of breakfast... he was famished and dehydrated. Maybe because of that fight last night? Or was it because of that dream he had?

He didn't care at this point. All he knew was that he wanted food and water, and he wanted it now. 

"Did you cook breakfast?" Kuro questioned with a hungry glance towards the food, which Mahiru immediately noticed when he sat back up and released the hold he had on the other's waist,"can I try it? I've, uh, not had anyone cook for me for so long so..."

Mahiru chuckled at his half-assed and awkward attempts to get to the food he cooked as he nodded,"Knock yourself out. I cooked it for you, after all, seeing as you have no proper food in your refrigerator at all."

Kuro pouted at him, causing the latter to do a double-take because 'was he actually pouting at me?', and he merely shook his head as he got up from his seated position.

Kuro was a bit startled by the movement and loss of presence as he instinctively grabbed onto the hem of Mahiru's jacket, and the brunette turned to look at the former for the weird action done.

The human must've realised what he had done as he immediately let go and scratched his nape sheepishly,"Sorry, it's, uh, instinct I guess. Living alone for a long time makes you develop weird habits such as... Never-mind, it's a pain to explain..."

Mahiru stared at him with a perplexed expression before it turned into a laugh, and Kuro had to try and force himself to not blush at the angelic sight before him. Eyes closed shut, a radiant smile that was genuine, brown hair fluttering and his laughter was music to his ears; he knew that the brunette truly felt safe with him to portray such genuine expressions.

It was a beautiful sight that only he could see at this point of time, and he took pride in that. Mahiru truly was a ray of light. What had he done to deserve such a wonderful and beautiful person like the boy in front of him right now?

Mahiru grinned and Kuro had to stop himself from jumping him, and the former gave him a cunning smile,"It's fine, I get it. Stuff yourself with the breakfast I cooked. I'll get back to you once you're either done or if the school is requesting your presence and you're gonna run late. I know what time school usually starts around here so you'll be safe with me. Scout's honour."

Kuro nodded as a response, watching Mahiru nod back and exited the room, leaving him to his own space. The human then turned his focus towards the plate of food by his side and noticed a card, piquing his interested as he picked it up and flipped it.

What was written on the card made his eyes soften at the gesture and his appreciation for the brunette grow even more.

'Remember to eat proper food! It's for your own health! Now that you've got me, you won't be eating so much of that nasty junk foods, got it? I'll wake you up in time everyday from now on so that you won't be late. Now, eat up! — Mahiru.'

He couldn't stop the smile from forming on his face.

Yeah, it definitely wasn't a mistake creating a contract with that guy after all.

~{&}~

A teenage-brunette could be seen sitting in a chair, reading a script that was rested on the table in front of him, and the vicinity he was in was painted in lily-white with not a trace of other living beings or inanimate objects to be seen; just him in the vast simple plainness of white.

He skimmed through the script he was holding, only to stop his skimming when he noticed that a new part was writing itself on the blank space.

He quirked a smile as he read through the written part, and once the so-called 'part' finished writing itself and what was left was a 'To be continued', he closed his eyes in contentment.

He grinned to himself,"What an amusing ride. I hope that Kuro Ash finally rewrites the ending that my character been subjected to numerous times. It'll be interesting to see. I've simply just been brought along for the ride after all, so if it's not amusing, then I've been wasting my time."

He sighed as he snapped his fingers and almost instantly, another script appears but this one seemed old, damaged, unlike the other one that was in his other hand. 

But what set them apart was that the newly-arrived script had the bold words 'THE END' written at the end of the script, while the one he was reading a moment ago had the bold words of 'TO BE CONTINUED'.

He smiled at the contrast the two had, and snapped both of them away.

"I wonder how you'll change the script's ending for yourself and my character, Kuro Ash," He grinned to himself, before muttering the last part of his sentence off.

"Or shall I say... Sleepy Ash?"


	9. Chapter 9

Half a minute.

He had half a minute until he was late to class.

Kuro dashed up the stairs with unprecedented speed, shocking the lynx that was forcibly stuffed into his bag regardless of the latter's protests— also, that same lynx was currently suffering immense pain from all of the books and items that were inside that were jabbing into his sides.

Mahiru has insisted that he would just stay at the apartment and do whatever household chore the human hadn't done yet, but Kuro was not about to let him out of his sight and reach, much to the former's confusion. Kuro actually used the contract to order him to come with him and of course, the brunette couldn't disobey and went along.

Why the human was so persistent in keeping him close was a mystery to the lynx but he wasn't about to pry open into the human's life without permission so he would just let it be for now.

And moreover, he had more things to focus on at the moment, like the pain of having his form squeezed into the bag with many other books.

"Damn it, I should've taken note of the time. I can't lose my streak. If I do, then that asshole of a teacher would probably never let me down," Kuro grumbled as he paced up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. 

He couldn't afford to be late. If he did, then he might never see that infuriated expression on his ass of a teacher's face from seeing him nearly being late to class by a fraction of a second. It was fun to see and irritate the man to the point of snapping and he wasn't about to lose that privilege. He also loved seeing him grumble while marking down his name as 'present' in the attendance instead of 'late'.

The sound of shoes screeching were heard through the corridors as Kuro finally got to his floor (while cursing the school at the same time for putting so much stairs), and the human could finally see salvation by the corner of his eye.

Having found his class's door, he grabbed onto the handle of the sliding door and mustered up his strength to slide it aside with one pull, cringing and wincing at the loud bang the door made with the wall at the force.

His heaving form finally made it's presence known to the other people in the class, shocking them at the sudden intrusion and he had to take a second to regain his breath. 

He glanced at the clock and felt triumph run through his veins at seeing the minute hand not hitting the 'three' on the clock just yet, and due to his actions, the teacher of the class looked up at it as well.

Kuro smirked as he saw the teacher's face contort into an infuriated one and the visible tightening of grip he had on his pen as he held the attendance book. 

"Tch. I swore that you would be late today. Way to ruin my morning. Go and take your seat, Ash," The man's voice was forced, causing audacious pride to swell up in the former's chest. Yeah, it never gets old seeing the teacher grit his teeth at the sight of him. In fact, it made his morning even better— 'better' stemming from the fact that he was greeted with a warm, delicious and homemade breakfast from a housewife.

Wait, now that he thought about it, it was that same very housewife that forgot to remind him to finish up his breakfast quickly before time ran out when he swore on a promise. Or did he just tune the brunette out when he issued out his reminder, instead choosing to focus on the scrumptious food before him? He didn't remember. All he knew was that he was eating and then he was running straight to school haggardly. 

He shrugged as he softly slid the sliding door back shut and made his way to his table, ignoring the stares from the other people as the fuming teacher went on with his class through gritted teeth and comments of 'damn kids these days'. He snickered to himself as he laid his bag on the side of his chair (wary of the lynx that was inside of it) and took out his textbooks and pencil case.

His eyes locked onto the lynx's curled up form and they locked gazes for awhile. His eyes softened in an apologetic manner, which the latter must've picked up on as it just shook it's head as if saying 'it's fine' and went back to laying it's head down on it's own feline paws. His lips curled up shortly as he went to zip his bag up again, leaving the lynx in it's comfortable darkness.

Had he decided to pay a bit more close attention though, he would've noticed a little cloth-like form in a space between his books, smirking from ear to ear.

He grabbed onto the textbooks with a tight grip as he slowly went forward to place them on the table but jolted in his seat when another person slammed the sliding door forcibly open, silencing the room.

"For god's sake, can you all stop doing that?! You're gonna break the door one day!" He heard his teacher yell in frustration and with his interests and curiosity piqued, he glanced towards the doorframe, wondering which little soul decided to barge into their class.

His eyes widened at the person who was sheepishly apologizing to the teacher with a slightly hunched frame, bandages wrapping his neck to help try and cover any wounds and secure them.

It was Tsubaki.

Images and scenes of what had happened yesterday flashed through his mind immediately. That was right, Tsubaki got bitten by that freak of a vampire magician. He bled on the sidewalk. He was also very badly injured and he didn't remember bringing him to a hospital since he passed out himself. The raven also seemed to have been in a worse condition than he was when he passed out from the contract.

And yet, the raven was standing there, as uncaring as ever— except for those bandages around his neck, that is, but that wasn't the point. His point was that the raven should be in a freaking HOSPITAL right now instead of boring school. 

The raven apologized to the teacher (clearly half-heartedly) and laughed a bit at the teacher's remarks before quietening down and muttering his favorite and iconic phrase of 'how boring' with a disinterested gaze.

The teacher became much more infuriated and was this close to snapping the pen he had in his hand — if he even could with that slightly below average build he had — and continued to berate the raven, but it was clear that the raven wasn't listening to the man at this point and his eyes wandered off.

Much to Kuro's dismay, those crimson red and sharp eyes eventually locked onto his attentive form, and almost immediately, a grin spread across his face as he waved at him. Kuro grimaced as he quelled that irresistible urge to kick the raven out of the class just for that simple yet awkward wave that put him into the predicament he was in— waves of eyes staring at him, the intensity and volume of the stares weighing down on him like a mountain.

He desperately wanted to get out of this situation and wished that the school would suddenly be blown up by a meteor or something, but try as he might, he wasn't God so that would just be another fantasy. Curse Tsubaki for always making things awkward for him. This was why he tried to avoid him at all costs, even from the start of his time at this high school but alas, fate had it in for him.

God, why did 'he' have to be such an ass and befriend this guy? Or was 'he' so desperate out of pure loneliness that he would try to find a friendly acquaintance in Tsubaki out of all people? 

He groaned softly as he tore his eyes away from the scene and instead decided to focus on playing with his stationeries, particularly with his pencils as he started to sketch a quick doodle of a boy with short yet seemingly soft hair, with round and big eyes and a bright smile that spread from ear to ear on his textbook. It was actually coming out pretty well in his eyes so he decided that he would add some more details, like a weirdly tied tie with a school uniform that looked uncannily similar to his own.

He added arms and remembered to draw the sleeves rolled up because, well... let's just say that he wanted to. He also added a wristband on the boy's wrist as well, and he smiled as he overlooked it. People often commended him for his art skills when they weren't berating him for sleeping in class, and he always replied that it was after years of hard work. He won't specify how many years though.

Apparently, as invested as he was in sketching in his textbook, he didn't realise that Tsubaki finally reconciled with the teacher and went back to his seat until he heard a 'psst' and the calling of his name, and he looked up to where that voice was coming from.

And lo and behold, it was from Tsubaki, who was now smirking at him with a cheeky expression in his eyes.

He jolted in his seat yet again for the second time during his less than ten-minutes stay in the class. Tsubaki seemed pleased— even prideful of the reaction he elicited out of him and smirked victoriously, and that caused him to growl in irritation.

He was about to retaliate when he realised that this might be a good time to ask about his injuries now that the raven was right in front of him. He quelled the inner beast in him that wanted to lash out, and quietly examined his wounds and bandages.

The raven noticed the stare and attention he was receiving and seemed quizzical at it as he asked,"What are you staring at?"

Kuro, who was slightly confused as well because he would've guessed that Tsubaki would've gotten the hint that he was examining his wounds from yesterday, asked back,"What do you mean? I'm examining your injuries from yesterday. Y'know, the one you got from having bitten by that crazy vampire-magician."

He expected him to understand immediately. He expected him to give a reasonable reply that went something along the lines of 'oh, they still hurt but they're getting better' and such. He expected reassurance from him that there was nothing to worry about. Because that was what was considered 'normal', right?

But yet again, he broke his expectations with a big and heavy hammer.

Tsubaki narrowed his eyes at him as if he grew another head and with a quizzical tone of voice, he replied,"What? What are you talking about? What 'crazy vampire-magician'? I feel like you're the one who's crazy here, and that's saying a lot. Vampires don't exist. And you're saying I got bitten? How amusing. Are you trying to make me laugh? That's a first from you, Kuro. How interesting!"

This sent Kuro's senses into a spiral.

Kuro could only sputter incoherent ramblings as he eyed the teen in front of him with wide and shocked eyes. What the hell did he mean? Didn't the incident just happen yesterday? He saw him get bitten before his very eyes. He dealt with the crazy magician with Mahiru as well. He even held his bleeding form in his trembling arms. Mahiru was even in his bag right now as he spoke.

So why was he acting as if nothing happened at all? 

Feeling frustrated, he tried to snap back with actual evidence that was right before him,"What do you mean? The incident was just yesterday. It happened so clearly. I held you bleeding in my arms as well. If you're saying that nothing happened yesterday, then what's that bandage around your neck, huh? Explain that to me."

To him, it seemed like Tsubaki froze for a second before he laughed it off casually, but Kuro felt like those laughters were forced,"Oh, this? Ah, this is an injury that I got because I was hit by a car. I think I remember you being there. I heard people screaming before I blacked out. I guess you were the one who was holding me? I don't know the details, but the next moment, I was in the hospital. Nothing serious happened, just a couple of cuts and bruises, but nothing serious. Don't worry 'bout it."

Kuro only stared at him, befuddled. What the hell was he even talking about? What car? There wasn't any car that hit into them, it was a freaking vampire. Did he get hit in the head while the vampire was drinking from him? Or did something happen when he passed out and Mahiru had to bring him home? 

What was even going on?

He tried to reason with him again,"But I—"

"Kuro, as interesting as this conversation is going, I must admit that it is bringing us nowhere. So, let's just drop it here, alright? And turn your page, we're already two pages ahead of you," Tsubaki cut him off with a smirk as he dropped the conversation and pointed at his textbook.

Kuro's eyes widened as he turned his head to look at his page and compared it with the one that the teacher was going through, and sure enough, it was two pages ahead of his current one. He grumbled as he went to turn the pages, not wanting to receive hell from the teacher for not paying attention — even if he has already been berated for it so, so many times that he didn't bother to count anymore — and eyed the math problem in front of him.

He glanced back at Tsubaki, which the latter noticed and gave him a smirk to which he hissed in return and turned back to his textbook. He groaned softly at the new dilemma that has befallen him, which was Tsubaki not knowing of what had happened yesterday.

So much things happened in the span of two days and it was hectic. First, he picked up a lynx, which was coincidentally a Servamp. Next, he came back from school and formed a temporary contract with him. Then, he got dragged into a heated battle with a vampire, to which's result he ended up blacking out in. And the very next day, the same teenager who was with him the whole time claimed he had no knowledge of the past events. 

Kuro sighed deeply in return.

Man, this was getting troublesome.

~{&}~

A while has passed since the confrontation he had with Tsubaki earlier, and he was now in a constant state of boredom as he listened to his teacher speak with that monotone-like voice over and over again, explaining another math problem that was too easy for him to even attempt to try.

He groaned softly as he continued to watch the teacher babble on how the formula should be used to solve it. Right from the bat, he could already figure out another way to solve the problem without using the formula given, but the teacher would probably deduct marks from it for not going with the flow which was unjust. Ah, society was such a pain in the ass. Stick out like a sore thumb, and they kick you to the lowest level of the hierarchy there is.

He didn't even know why he bothered going to school at this point. He knew everything that was going to be taught sooner or later. Of course, there were times when he was actually caught off guard by the questions, but that was rare. His siblings also weren't really expecting much of him. They told him that he could do whatever he wanted, just if he didn't meddle into any serious affairs. And to top it all off, he didn't even like the school atmosphere. It was suffocating him.

He could quit right now. He could. He really could.

But at the same time, he couldn't.

For one, you needed education to get a job. Even though he doesn't know how long he's gonna exist here, he's not gonna take any chances. Even if you were smart, as smart as Einstein or whatever, if you didn't have something concrete to prove it to the company that you're applying for then you're dead meat. No one can trust just your words in this world. You needed evidence. And number two...

...He needed to blend in.

Because wouldn't it be suspicious if a teenager were to just stay in their homes every single day without the bills affecting them, especially if their parents weren't there? CPS would come running after his ass and breathing down his neck, demanding questions on how the hell he was still surviving, and he didn't want that.

So here he was, having to endure the boring period of math just so that he could avoid CPS. Hooray.

He sighed as he planted his chin on his palm and watched the teacher move with slow and jerky movements. Every second that went by seemed to tear at his sanity. He couldn't even last one period, how about at least five more? He couldn't deal with it.

It was a wonder how he was still sane at this point. The classroom was like a battlefield of tug of war for him. One side pulling with their strength to his quitter mentality, the other pulling back to his reason of staying here. So far, he didn't know who was winning. Every breath he took while in the battlefield was another second in war in his mind. And with Tsubaki in the same vicinity as him, his 'good' side was getting severely wounded.

But he kept on fighting. He knew that his reason of staying in the classroom was bigger than him just being a crybaby who was throwing a tantrum over having to go to school like any other ordinary human being. He knew that, and that was his sole source of fuel that kept him going.

He pinched the brink of his nose, trying to take this moment to quell any irritating voices in his head that screamed for him to just give up searching at this point and to just go home. To just go back to the comfort of his home and forget about the search at all.

But how could he go home if his home was what he was searching for in the first place?

At that notion, the voices seemed to quiet down and he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, some peace and quiet. Those annoying voices finally conceded defeat for once, and it relieved him. What would make this better? Maybe some music? Yeah, that would make it better. Perhaps, he could secretly take his earpiece while the teacher wasn't focused on him and tune everything out except the calming music in his ears, filling his soul with temporary contempt.

With his mind set on a goal, he waited for the teacher's back to turn to write onto the whiteboard. Once his back was turned, Kuro immediately got to work. He leaned over his bag, hand hovering over the zipper handle with every intention to quickly zip it open without disturbing the lynx inside.

However, just before he was about to grab onto it, movement was suddenly seen from the bag. It jumbled around as if two inanimate objects were inside of it, grasping and pushing at the other as if their lives depended on it. It set Kuro on edge, and he suddenly lost his will to touch it.

'What the hell is Mahiru doing in there?' He found himself asking voicelessly as his hand reached forward but retracted as well, as if contemplating whether it should or should not touch his bag which was like a lion at the moment. 

He finally mustered up the courage to grab onto his bag and with another apprehensive hand, he slowly and quietly zipped it open and he peered into what was causing the commotion.

His eyes widened like dinner plates when he saw who it was.

It was that same very plushie-form of the magician who he fought yesterday, and it was fighting Mahiru's lynx form for space.

"There you finally are!" The doll, or plushie— whichever you would like to call it, squeaked with that same mischievous smirk plastered onto his face,"I've been waiting for you to open this stupid bag! It's so cramped, especially with this ridiculous and hideous lynx in here as well! So could you get me out of here right now?!"

They said that actions spoke louder than words. In his case, it was more like his actions were forced out of him faster than the words that were threatening to spill out any moment. 

He didn't even blink. He immediately zipped his bag shut with the speed of lightning and stuffed his textbooks underneath his table. After that, he abruptly stood up from his chair, startling the rest of his classmates who were previously just having a normal and peaceful class of math.

The teacher was shocked as he almost lost the marker he was holding before he tried to order Kuro back down,"Ash, what do you think you're doing, disrupting my lessons like that? Sit back down this instant—"

"I'm sorry, Teach, but I've gotta run. Something important just came up and I need to go. Goodbye," Kuro cut him off rudely as he grabbed his bag and dashed straight for the door, ignoring the exclaims and shoutings of 'wait, come back!' and 'stop!' from the teacher himself. He slammed it open and rushed out, running in the hallways, towards the cursed staircases that lead to the school's exit.

The whole class fell quiet as the teacher stood there with a haggard expression, disbelief written all over their faces over what had happened just now.

Not for one raven though.

The one and only raven who appeared to be indifferent towards the situation at whole, merely allowed a melancholic expression befall onto his face. He glanced out of the window and stared straight at a male's back who was heading towards the exit with a lynx in his arms and a plushie in the other. 

He sighed deeply with hints of regret in his voice,"If only you didn't pick up that lynx, Kuro. If only you hadn't. Maybe, just maybe, we would have still been genuine friends to this day."

~{&}~

Two males were seen idling at a school's rooftop. One was leaning against a wall, basking in the cooling shade and the comfort it surrounded him with, shielding him from the scorching heatwaves from the sun. It was a blond, wearing slightly conspicuous clothes that consisted of a cowboy hat and an outfit that resembled a cowboy as well.

The said male was currently toying around with a doll that looked to be modeled after a brunette girl. It was small, had beady eyes and braided hair. What was unique about the doll was that it had a top hat that had horns attached to it as well.

"Ah, my dear Abel. Are you alright? I'm sorry for having to put you in a cramped bag. It's not easy carrying an adult male while jumping from rooftops to rooftops, y'see," He cooed as he massaged her soft sides carefully,"adult males are very heavy so imagine me carrying one. And to add up to that, I had to be careful of the sun as well, lest I want to transform back into an animal. If I did, then what would have happened to that male, hm?"

A cunning smirk that resembled a selfish fox's overtook his facial features,"Splat! Down we go, to our dooms, much more so for the human. How easy it would be to kill one, huh? Humans are so fragile. Cut down an arm, and they howl in agony while clutching feebly to the bleeding catastrophe."

His eyes leveled up from the doll to the other male who was dressed in black robes that went from his neck all the way to his ankles, with black shoes to match with the outfit. His robes also had a hood attached to it, masking up his back even more. The said male was leaning against the bar rails that prevented anyone from slipping off, and he was eyeing a certain blue-haired teenager that seemed to be running away from the premises.

The blonde's smirk matched his sharp and calculative eyes as he taunted with a playful yet deadly edge in the tone of his voice while tucking Abel into one of his pockets,"Isn't that right, Jeje?"

Upon hearing the name, the owner of the said name turned around to meet the blonde's eyes, albeit his was shielded by black tinted sunglasses. A black mask covered up the bottom of his face, bringing an air of mystery to him. The only thing that could hint to his identity was the silky long black hair covered his forehead and the pale skin that glistened and illuminated from the sun and contrasted the dark colours of his robe.

Jeje merely clicked his tongue and turned away, choosing to ignore the blond and continued to lean on the railings. The blond however, found this amusing and chuckled loudly.

"What is this?" He sniggered with cheekiness,"why are you being salty? Are you actually throwing a tantrum? What's the cause of it? Oh, is it because your precious paper bags that you used to cover your face were destroyed by Johannes and you now have to resort to using a mask and shades to compensate for it? How amusing!"

After his laughter died down, a grin spread across his face next,"But really, it truly is surprising that your sibling, Kuro Ash, actually formed a contract with Despair, just like how you calculated it to be. Was it a lucky guess? Did you go see a fortune teller or something?"

A few seconds passed, as if the taller raven was choosing his words carefully before he spoke with a deep and low voice,"It's... not really a lucky guess. I just knew that he would. After all, this... meeting Despair... it isn't really a coincidence. And I knew he would grasp onto that opportunity no matter what, even if fate said no. He has been waiting for this chance to arrive for so, so many years after all."

Once hearing that, the grin was wiped clean off the blond's face, which was now replaced by a serious expression. The blond's crimson eyes darkened and with a quiet but affirmative voice, he replied,"So, what? What do you mean? Are you trying to say that he was meant to make a contract with him, like a well written script?"

Jeje merely shrugged,"I suppose you can view it that way. I'm not that sure either. But I had expected him to not heed our advice to not meddle into any dangerous affairs. Of course, I am a hypocrite as well, but he was given a chance to not meddle in while I wasn't given that privilege. Nonetheless, there is nothing I can do. A complete contract has been formed, and I can do nothing about it."

The blond seemed dissatisfied by his answer, if his new frown was any given evidence. 

Feeling that diplomacy wouldn't get him any better answers, he decided to resort to violence. In a flash, rope was summoned in his right hand with a noose tied at the end. He swung it fast and accurately and it looped around Jeje's hand. Once he latched onto it, he tugged on it hard, hard enough to send the human flying to his shelter. The human was quick enough to stop himself from slamming into a wall, but he was quicker. He grabbed a fistful of his collar area and forced him back into the wall with a painful thud, but he didn't care. He hissed and growled at him with menacing eyes.

With selfish eyes that could kill someone with the amount of animosity it flared with, he snarled out,"Just what are you hiding, Jeje? You know that I don't like to be kept away from knowledge. I'm a selfish person, so I don't care if you start crying. Tell me what secrets you are burying deep inside your soul. Tell me, now."

Jeje however, wasn't affected by his glare at all. If anything, he was indifferent to it, and it infuriated the blond to no ends as he tightened the grip he had on his robe.

"Release me," The human, with indifference, beseeched as he stared straight at those same very eyes that seemed to hold raging infernos in them, waiting to be unleashed at any given moment.

"No. Not until you tell me," The blond snarked back with fangs protruding slightly out of his mouth, making him resemble something of a vicious predator like a fox about to kill it's prey.

"It wasn't a question nor a favor," Jeje growled.

"Nor was mine," The former retorted back.

Suddenly, a harsh force forced the blond to uncurl his fingers slowly, and his movements were restricted. Try as he might, he couldn't do anything about it. Even struggling was futile. It wasn't Jeje who was doing it, seeing as he wasn't even holding his hand. The force— or, entity forced his hand to remove their hold on the raven's clothes and almost immediately, the heavy and trajectory force was lifted off his whole arm.

The blond gasped for air as he stood back, trying to regain his breath. A vicious glare came straight for Jeje from yours truly himself, and he yelled,"How underhanded your actions are! You used the contract to force me to let go instead of doing it yourself! How selfish of you!"

"It is not underhanded. I was merely using my own position to get an advantage. After all, a Servamp shouldn't and can't disobey it's own Eve," An affirmative and demanding husky voice came from Jeje himself, sending another glare his way.

He watched as the Servamp he spoke of take deep breaths to regain his composure. He leaned back into the wall, seeking the coldness the wall offered. Once the blond finally regained his strength, he looked up and glared at him one last time.

With determination swelling in his chest, the Servamp declared,"There is something that you are hiding. That you all are hiding. And I promise you that I will find out about it someday."

Jeje frowned at his declaration, feeling the smallest hints of doubt and apprehension arising from the bottom of his heart. But he couldn't let the Servamp know. That would only enable his sense of interest of finding out what their secret was, and he couldn't let him know. Out of all people, not him.

He scoffed as he masked the apprehension in the air with indifference and began walking, sticking close to the wall for comfort,"Do whatever you want. Try to find it out. Though, I doubt you will. Hurry up and transform back, we have to go. Security is going to catch up to us if we don't hurry."

The Servamp clicked his tongue in irritation but nonetheless obliged. A puff of smoke appeared before dissipating away quickly, and what was of a blond was no more.

It was a fox, but what set it aside from most other different foxes is the unusual vibrant and crimson red eyes it had. While yes, occasionally, there may be a natural red-eyed fox, but the hue was mostly diluted. His though, almost seemed.. mystically unatural.

The fox used it's lightness to it's advantage and lunged itself into the air and landed gracefully on the human's shoulders. Jeje huffed as the fox continued to not speak with him, but he decided that it would be better to let it be.

'The day that we are all found out, huh?' Jeje thought to himself as he quietly opened the door that led to the inside of the school building. He glanced behind for a second, taking in the plain scenery that was of the school before turning back, creeping into the school undetected.

He scoffed softly at that thought and shook his head.

‘As long as we haven't found them, that day will never arrive. We will make sure of it and search for them to the very end.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I don’t really know why but the bolding and italics aren’t working for me in AO3 and because of this, some things aren’t emphasised enough and it can become confusing so I desperately beg of you all to refer to my Wattpad version of this story called ‘Servamp: Reverse The Roles’ as the holdings and italics work just fine and things becomes much clearer and you’ll have a better time adjusting. 
> 
> So if you have the time, please go to Wattpad and search my book up so that you’ll be less confused! I also update much faster there than I do here because I fret over the buildings and italics so if you would prefer faster updates, please go there instead! My username on Wattpad is the same so it’ll be easy to find me. TheLostSilence.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Just like all of my stories on this website so far, this story has been copied and pasted onto here from Wattpad. 
> 
> Please visit my Wattpad account ‘TheLostSilence’ for much better quality work than this! All of the books are under the same name, but some of the one-shots that I’ve written are in some of those books so you'll have to search for them. :P
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and have a nice day! ^^


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